Chief Minister Andrew Barr outraged some owners of asbestos-contaminated houses this week when he all but abandoned a board of inquiry, saying Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was not supportive and the ACT could not go it alone.

Mr Barr said he had asked Mr Turnbull for financial support, because a board of inquiry – the ACT's equivalent of a royal commission – could cost tens of millions of dollars.

Mr Turnbull declined the request, according to Mr Barr – a position Mr Turnbull's office has refused to confirm, despite repeated questions on Thursday and Friday.

It is not clear whether the two leaders have discussed Commonwealth co-operation with an ACT inquiry.

Mr Barr said the ACT needed federal co-operation to access documents and information from before self-government in 1989.

Dirk Jansen installed the dangerous loose-fill asbestos insulation in the ceilings of Canberra houses from the late 1960s to 1979. The federal government put in place the clean-up of 1988-1992, when ceilings, but not walls or other cavities, were cleared of the asbestos. The clean-up crossed self-government.

Under federal open-access rules, Commonwealth documents until 1991 – well after self-government – are already publicly available. Cabinet documents until 1977 are available and by January 2017 another three years will be released.

It is not clear whether Mr Barr wants or has asked for access to cabinet documents from the 1980s, or whether he has asked for any other Commonwealth co-operation, other than financial. Neither Mr Barr nor Mr Turnbull have answered questions on that issue.

A spokesman for Mr Turnbull said only: "It is a matter for the ACT government whether to establish a board of inquiry into this matter."

While Mr Barr is not looking to a full board of inquiry, he maintains his promise to have "a review of the history of issues that led the ACT government to make the decision it did in 2014", but not until the end of the eradication program. The demolition is due to be completed about 2020.

Mr Rattenbury, who holds the balance of power in the ACT Parliament, said he was very disappointed at the lack of Commonwealth involvement, but an inquiry should nevertheless be held – and sooner than 2020.

"I think that is too far away," he said. "I don't think it has to happen in the next few months, but it needs to happen reasonably soon."

The first he had heard of a lack of federal co-operation was on Friday, so he would now "figure out what next".

"If they don't agree to let their officials come forward, and the ACT can't compel those officials, then we're not going to get a proper inquiry ...

"In the absence of Commonwealth support, we need to think about what plan B looks like."

Mr Rattenbury said he was undecided on the focus of any inquiry, with some owners wanting to explore the history, back to the decision to allow Mr Jansen to use asbestos insulation, despite warnings in the 1970s, and others focused on the failed Commonwealth clean-up and the actions of the ACT government since.

"There's a range of people wanting different things. Some people simply want to have the story documented; they want the story to be told so that it's not lost in history and that is an important part of the inquiry process, as well," he said.

"When people talk about an inquiry, there's a lot of different views about what that should be, so part of what we need to do is resolve that."