Labor and the Coalition locked horns in NSW Parliament over the Mater mould and maintenance scandal, a day after a damning report called for the hospital's public-private partnership (PPP) to be terminated.
The report found the PPP "enabled very serious infrastructure and maintenance problems, and subsequent service failures, across the hospital".
Health Minister Ryan Park on Thursday reacted to comments from his opponent, Opposition health spokesperson Sarah Mitchell, over the parliamentary inquiry report into the Mater scandal.
Ms Mitchell had accused the minister of "ducking all accountability and responsibility".
Mr Park said in Question Time: "I know some comments from the Opposition in the last 24 hours or so about this. Under their plan, they want me to let the private contractors off the hook".
"They have put out a media release with an uncanny level of stupidity."
Mr Park referred to a media release with a "letterhead from the shadow minister".
However, Ms Mitchell said the minister seemed to be referring to a media release from May 13.
"The theatrics from the health minister in Question Time were nothing short of embarrassing," Ms Mitchell said.
"Instead of spending his time trawling through Opposition media releases from months ago in an attempt to yet again deflect any accountability, Ryan Park should be focusing his efforts on untangling the mess that has been allowed to fester under his watch.
"The staff and patients at Calvary Mater, and the residents of Newcastle, deserve better and should be treated with more respect."
Ms Mitchell said these people were "not interested in the health minister's childish Question Time games - they just want the government to step in and fix the problems."
In the May media release, Ms Mitchell said "Ryan Park and the Minns Labor government rejected two offers to bring the hospital back into public hands for just $2".
Mr Park said on Thursday in Question Time: "I'll just try and explain this".
"I can't draw it, but I'll try and explain it," Mr Park said.
"If we did that [accepted the $2 offer], there would be a small problem. That would be the government would be liable for the incredible infrastructure backlog and maintenance backlog that we would then have to fund.
"It's not $2. It's tens of millions of dollars."
Nonetheless, the government has already committed to pay to replace defective cladding at the Mater and committed $400 million, of which some will be used to upgrade the hospital's defective heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system.
The Mater operates under a PPP between Novacare and NSW Health's Health Administration Corporation (HAC).
NSW Health has imposed financial penalties on Novacare Health under the PPP of about $300 million.
An internal NSW Health Ministry document said these "abatement fines" against Novacare were for "non-compliance with their obligations under the contract".
However, Novacare disputes the payments and the company previously said it was headed for voluntary administration. It offered to sell the private arm of the Mater PPP to the NSW government for $2.
NSW Health rejected the offer, saying it was "not in a position to accept any of the Novacare entities' liabilities".
Novacare said at an inquiry hearing in May that about $50 million of its liabilities were for "outstanding bonds", which appear to relate to investors who loaned money for the PPP.
The Newcastle Herald previously asked the government to detail what the liabilities and risks of the $2 deal were, but it did not directly respond.
