Page 998 - Week 03 - Thursday, 23 March 2017
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groups that you will continue supporting them? What is it that you are actually going to do?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Ms Lee for her supplementary question. I would refer her to the answer I gave to Ms Le Couteur earlier on in question time. Our offices—the office of Minister Fitzharris and my office—and our directorates are, as I said, working with SHOUT and other community organisations. The Community Services Directorate has spoken extensively with SHOUT about the issues and with SHOUT members about ongoing funding.
CSD has spoken with all SHOUT members who would be most affected by the changes and gathered further information that they need. CSD has engaged with ACOSS to progress a solution to this issue. As an immediate step, workshops with members of other community organisations are being arranged as we speak.
I reiterate that we are committed to finding an ongoing sustainable solution for these organisations and supporting them through the transition to new funding arrangements. Unfortunately, I am just not at liberty to talk about the detail of those conversations. But I have had conversations with Ms Lee on this matter. I continue to offer her briefings and she is welcome to come and talk to me any time.
Access Canberra—service delivery
MS CHEYNE: My question is to the Minister for Regulatory Services. Minister, how is the new Access Canberra service centre building on the success of the service centre opened in 2015 in Gungahlin to help improve its service delivery in Woden?
MR RAMSAY: I thank Ms Cheyne for her question. The service centre in Gungahlin, when it opened in 2015, set a new benchmark for an integrated, streamlined customer service model for the ACT government. I was pleased to open the new centre in Woden a few weeks ago. It marked the next step in the government’s intention to make it easier for Canberrans to access the services they need to go about their daily lives and to run their businesses. Access Canberra staff are now well established in Woden in a purpose-built environment designed both to offer best practice client service as well as an engaging and exciting workplace for staff.
The service begins with being greeted by a friendly concierge who can either assist you to self-serve for simple transactions at a computer kiosk or select a ticket to see an expert staff member at a counter. This is one of the ways of helping members of the public understand how they can save time by carrying out a number of transactions online. I had a brief go at concierge duties and I can assure you that the Access Canberra staff in these roles are offering an important service which takes extensive knowledge and streamlines the customer service. For more complicated issues, customers can see staff at casual desks or in semi-private booths or in private rooms if they need to sit down and work through complex transactions.
The excellent client service at Woden has already been noticed. Recently a customer wrote to Access Canberra saying, “I went into your Woden branch last Friday afternoon. I walked in upset after a difficult time with a commonwealth agency. I had
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