The NSW government is spending $1 million a year on security and maintenance at disused Tomaree Lodge and $1.8 million on the vacant Stockton Centre.
Minister for Disability Inclusion Kate Washington told a budget estimates hearing last week that the heritage-listed lodge was costing taxpayers $1 million for security plus $800,000 for maintenance.
The Port Stephens MP's office contacted the Newcastle Herald on Friday to correct the record, saying Ms Washington had inadvertently provided the $1.8 million figure relating to maintaining the vacant Stockton Centre and not Tomaree Lodge.
Ms Washington said she would seek to correct the parliamentary record to reflect the $1 million figure for Tomaree.
Tomaree Headland Heritage Group, which represents a host of business and community organisations in Port Stephens, has called on the government to hasten a decision on the nine-hectare Tomaree site's future.
The group has asked the government to "advise the community on the status of the transition of the Tomaree Lodge site to Port Stephens for community use, including the outcomes from the community consultation process conducted almost 12 months ago".
THHG has proposed transforming the former disability care centre into an education and tourism precinct.
It has recently embraced a proposal from retired CSIRO insect scientist Reginald Roberts to open an ecology centre at the site describing the Hunter environment from coastline to rainforest.
One of THHG's member organisations, Tomaree Cultural Development Group, wants to see a performance venue and art exhibition space on part of the site.
Liberal MP Natasha Maclaren-Jones quizzed Ms Washington in budget estimates on when the government would release the consultation report, which she said the minister had received in May.
Ms Washington replied that her department would release the paper "when we have done the work that's necessary that makes it a productive piece of work, which includes the work that we are doing to understand what the actual constraints are on the site".
"The consultation that you referred to and the paper that went to my community asking them for their ideas, what it didn't do was discuss the constraints on the site," she said.
"You had a significant time when you knew that this was closing and you did nothing to create a plan."
The former government began removing residents from Tomaree Lodge in 2015 before closing it in 2021.
The government is investigating whether the Stockton Centre, another former disability home, can be used for emergency or social housing.
Ms Washington told budget estimates that a community housing provider was due to inspect the site soon.
