11. State Services—Office AccommodationHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) to the Minister of State ServicesState Services—Office Accommodation11. Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) to the Minister of State Services: What advice if any has he received about accommodation for Government departments?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of State Services): I have received a range of advice about accommodation for Government departments in my capacity as the Minister of State Services with functional lead for Government property. This has included updates on the Wellington Accommodation Project phases one and two and other opportunities to reduce the overhead cost associated with Government departmental accommodation.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Is it appropriate for a Government department to share offices with a member of Parliament?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I'm advised that a story in a local newspaper has made that suggestion and that that story is not true and that a correction has been requested.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Was it appropriate for the Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister for Ethnic Communities to state in a story that the Department of Internal Affairs' office of ethnic affairs would be shared with a Labour list MP?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I think the member didn't listen to my last answer. The story in the local paper was incorrect and a correction has been requested.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Is it appropriate for parliamentary under-secretaries and list MPs to misrepresent their political parliamentary office—Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister has given two denials and has stated in the House—and it's on his word and his integrity's at stake when he says that—that this matter has been corrected and that there's going to be a media statement to that effect. Despite that this member has kept the same line of questioning as though the denial was never made in the first place and he should be stopped because now he's impugning a member of this House without any grounds whatsoever.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Speaking to the point of order it's entirely appropriate for a member to ask questions about statements that are in quote marks from members of the Government. SPEAKER: Sure.Hon Dr Nick Smith: While I accept—SPEAKER: The member will resume his seat. I'm not stopping him asking that question.Hon Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It's a different point.SPEAKER: A different point of order.Hon Grant Robertson: In the question that Dr Smith had begun to ask the words he used were Is it appropriate for an under-secretary to misrepresent". My understanding is that's the kind of language that is not allowed in the House. You can't accuse a member of doing that.SPEAKER: You certainly can.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Is it appropriate for a parliamentary under-secretary and other members of Parliament in the Government to represent their list office provided by Parliamentary Service as an office of a Government department to ethnic communities?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I haven't seen the story. I have been advised that the story is incorrect and that a correction has been requested.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Is it appropriate that when members of the public approached this office this morning they were told that it was part of the Office of Ethnic Communities when in fact it was the office of a Labour list MP?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I haven't seen any evidence of that."