The family of James Wallner had pleaded with the federal government to create a fund to support victims of the Mr Fluffy health crisis, warning in a letter to Mr Hunt a failure to do so would send a message it was content to watch sufferers die without access to life-prolonging treatment.

But while Mr Hunt has expressed deep sympathy for Mr Wallner's circumstances, his office made it clear responsibility for supporting sufferers rests with the ACT government.

Mr Wallner described that response as "classic buck-passing".

A week after his brother was diagnosed with the incurable disease in July, Bruce Wallner sent an emotion-charged letter to Mr Hunt which implored the Commonwealth to finally take responsibility for a problem born while the ACT was under its control.

"Minister, it is time for you to mend this gap," Mr Wallner wrote in the letter, which the family supplied to The Canberra Times.

"If you don't, I can only conclude that you are content to sit by and watch as my brother, and those that will follow him, die without being able to afford the necessary life-prolonging medical treatments now available."

The impassioned plea was made before the ACT government stepped in to cover up to $250,000 of James Wallner's medical expenses, in the first payment of its kind to a Mr Fluffy victim.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr this week revealed he was considering a wider scheme to support mesothelioma sufferers, which could include money to cover medical expenses and lost income.

Mr Barr said he would seek funding from the federal government for the scheme.

The Wallner family strongly believed the Commonwealth should step up, arguing its negligence was responsible for the "public health mistake" which had led to James Wallner's incurable disease.

In the letter sent on July 13, Bruce Wallner argued the federal government's culpability arose after it ignored warnings about the dangers of using loose-fill asbestos for insulation, which were spelled out in a Commonwealth health department-commissioned report in 1968.

Mr Wallner wrote the Commonwealth "negligently ignored" the advice in Gersh Major's report and allowed the material to be pumped into Canberra homes - including the Wallner's family house on Vasey Crescent in Campbell.

"Please do not tell me that this is a matter for the ACT government," Mr Wallner said.

"The passing of self-government to the ACT legislature in 1989 does not erase nor transfer the Commonwealth's culpability for this public health mistake and the looming death of the second of my six family members."

The Wallners' mother died of lung cancer in 1999, aged 65.

Bruce Wallner wrote he was "incredulous and angry" that in the four decades since Mr Fluffy insulation was banned, the Commonwealth had never offered to help cover medical expenses of those who were diagnosed with mesothelioma due to long-term exposure to asbestos.

"It seems that the dark truth is that your government doesn't really care about the innocent citizens, and their families, who are paying the ultimate price for the Commonwealth's 1968 decision that allowed the business of loose-fill asbestos to operate in the ACT," the letter read.

The Wallner family asked Mr Hunt to create a medical assistance fund which could be accessed by Canberrans suffering from mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases caused by long-term Mr Fluffy exposure.

James Wallner this week told The Canberra Times neither Mr Hunt nor his office replied to the letter, which he found embarrassing as a long-time Commonwealth public servant.

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The letter was forwarded from Mr Hunt's office to the federal health department, which passed it on to ACT authorities.

The Canberra Times asked Mr Hunt if the federal government would agree to the Wallner family's request and establish a fund to support mesothelioma suffers.

His spokesman did not respond directly to that question, but noted it was the ACT government which had "jurisdiction for these matters".

However, the spokesman said Mr Hunt did have a "deep personal passion and commitment" to supporting mesothelioma sufferers.

"The minister deeply sympathises with Mr Wallner's circumstances and is aware that the ACT government has granted financial support to assist Mr Wallner with his immediate medical costs, whilst a wider support scheme is being considered by the ACT government," the spokesman said.

Asked to comment on Mr Hunt's response, which he had awaiting for more than 140 days, Mr Wallner said: "This is classic buck-passing.

"This is the same old thing of passing the buck back to the ACT.

"In no way are they acknowledging the error, they haven't acknowledged the research done by Gersh Major back in 1968. They are just ignoring it all."

Mr Wallner earlier this week thanked the ACT government for its support, but remained adamant the Commonwealth should have helped him, and other victims in the future.

He suggested the Commonwealth loan money to the ACT government to pay for the mesothelioma support fund, as it did for the $1 billion Mr Fluffy buyback and demolition scheme in 2014.

"Why did the Commonwealth see a moral obligation to assist with $1 billion with real estate, but not have seen a need to assist with a medical fund?" he said.

Mr Barr confirmed to The Canberra Times he would still lobby the federal government to contribute to the ACT's proposed scheme.

"As we consider the parameters of a possible scheme for the decades ahead, we will be seeking Commonwealth participation," he said.

"Of course, we hope there are no further cases and a scheme is unnecessary."