The election campaign fever in Australia is starting to heat up as declarations of key campaign platforms are being revealed.

Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan said that action on climate change would be part of the campaign in the lead up to Australia's Aug. 21 election by Labour Party nominees.

He told Adelaide-based FiveAA radio today that a new climate policy for the world's biggest coal exporter and driest inhabited continent are key areas to be addressed in the campaign.

Rudd's Failure

Treasurer Wayne Swan has committed that this would be considered thoroughly after the Labour Party received a backlash when former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who shelved the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme until 2012 amid opposition from lawmakers.

The proposal had aimed to cut pollution by 5 percent through an emissions- trading scheme. The move came almost four months after some 190 nations failed to agree on a binding greenhouse gas treaty at talks in Copenhagen.

Commitment on Budget

Mr Swan also emphasised that the Australian government's cap on new spending to balance the budget will apply to any climate-change legislation, , limiting resources for the programs once at the heart of the ruling Labour Party's election campaign.

"The new measures will fit into our fiscal rules," Swan, 56, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio in Canberra last week. Swan yesterday reaffirmed new spending growth would be capped at 2 percent. "They are strict and those fiscal rules will apply to any new measures," he said.