Dr Kaye said: "Minister Firth is being less than candid when she says that NSW has successfully run a carbon trading market.
 
"The Iemma government's Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme (GGAS) has been an unmitigated disaster.
 
"It has seen spectacular collapses in carbon trading prices, financial rewards going to the nation's most greenhouse intensive power station and questions raised about double dipping for carbon credits.
 
"The only claim state government could have to hosting the hub for Kevin Rudd's CPRS would be that it ought to have learned what not to do.
 
"The GGAS scheme was flawed from its inception. The intent was to create the impression that something was being done to tackle the 57 million tonnes of CO2 pouring from the state's power stations without actually addressing the underlying problem of addiction to coal-fired electricity generation.
 
"To that extent it succeeded.
 
"The scheme which operated across state borders allowed the nation's worst polluter per unit of energy generated, Hazelwood Power station in Victoria, to earn and sell credits.
 
"In September of last year, GGAS trading prices went into free fall in part because the Iemma government allowed too many credits to be created.
 
"Persistent doubts have been raised about the possibility that some participants were being rewarded financially for business decisions they would have made without the scheme.
 
"It is hard to see how this experience justifies Minister Firth's claims," Dr Kaye said.
 
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455