A board of inquiry into the Fluffy asbestos disaster in Canberra looks further off than ever after Chief Minister Andrew Barr said on Tuesday he didn't see much point.
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Mr Barr continued to insist under questions in estimates hearings that a full royal commission-style inquiry into the issue would get nowhere without the involvement of the Commonwealth government.
It is unclear precisely what he has asked of the Commonwealth. In March, he said he had asked for financial support, which had been refused by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
At the time, Mr Turnbull's office refused to answer this newspaper's specific questions on whether the Commonwealth would co-operate with an inquiry by releasing documents and other information about the program. A spokesman said only that it was "a matter for the ACT government whether to establish a board of inquiry".
Mr Barr says the deadly loose-fill asbestos insulation was pumped into the ceilings of more than 1000 Canberra houses under the Commonwealth's watch, before self government. Self government coincided with the clean-up program of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and since then the ACT has been responsible.
Mr Barr said a board of inquiry would not unveil anything new without Commonwealth involvement.
"What I'm trying to understand is what would a board of inquiry without the Commonwealth's involvement achieve other than costing the territory tens of millions of dollars?" he said.
"There are many things can be done to provide answers to people who are seeking further answers but as to why it happened in 1968 and what happened in 1991, these issues issues have been pretty extensively canvassed and I'm not sure if there is any great value, particularly if the Commonwealth would not co-operate."
Mr Fluffy Dirk Jansen himself was dead, and probably so were some of the federal officials at the time the insulation stared being installed in the late 1960s.
"Theres not a huge amount that is going to be ascertained, so I have a number of threshold issues, one of which is being able to justify the further expenditure of public funds on such a process," Mr Barr said.
He nevertheless said he would raise the question again with the Commonwealth after the federal election. The Liberals have promised to hold a board of inquiry if they win government in October.
