Service SA

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:22): My question is to the Minister for Transport. Can he give the house any indication of what work is being done to reduce the floor space on any of the Service SA offices, particularly those at Modbury, Mitcham and Prospect? What plans have already been evaluated to reduce the number of face-to-face contact points within those offices?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:23): Thank you very much. I think I know where the member is going, and that is what we are doing to modernise our Service SA centres.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: What we have announced is, of course, that we are keeping those three centres open in or around their same vicinity, and we will have more to say on that as that's finalised. But what I can tell the member is that it would be worthwhile—and I think I've mentioned it in this place before—for members to go and have a look at the one in the city and the new one that we have just opened up in Mount Barker, which has been a huge success. It actually has a wonderful concierge on entrance, whereby, as customers go in there and they are looking for service, they are greeted at the front.

It's taking the operators from out the back of the office and behind desks to the front of the office where the service is provided, so really it's putting the service back in Service SA. I commend all the people involved in putting the Mount Barker one together, and that is the model that we want to see rolling out right across our state to make sure that we are getting that service back into these centres and people are getting the services they want.

We look forward to expanding the other ones and working in this more integrated system, allowing people to be more interactive. Again, so many services are now online and available online, which makes it easier.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: It was actually discussed with me—I know the leader doesn't want to hear about this either because better service is not something that they are about, but on this side of the house it's what we are about, and this is where we are delivering these better services.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I have outlined that they are staying open. We will keep delivering those better services to the people of South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: The leader was interjecting there, but I was going to talk about one Service SA centre, and the story that was relayed to me was fantastic. It was a 90-year-old guy who came in and they took him to the terminal and got him online, and he was absolutely flying by the end of this session. He was so happy to be doing all of his operations online. He was very adept at doing everything that needed to happen through the online portal.

We want to do all we can to help people learn how to do this because we are moving into a digital age, and that's what our Service SA centres will be providing into the future.