CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Australia’s Senate voted Thursday to reject legislation that would have curbed the amount of greenhouse gas pollution that the country emits, but the government said it would push the bill again later this year.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said that the government would continue its campaign to push the legislation through the Senate, in a move that could trigger an early election if the opposition-controlled chamber rejects the measure a second time.

"We may lose this vote, but this issue will not go away because we ... understand Australia cannot afford for climate change action to be unfinished business and we will not let it be," Wong told the Senate before the vote, which the government lost 42 votes to 30.

"We will press ... on with this reform for as long as we have to," she added.

The government plan would institute a tax on industries’ carbon emissions starting in 2011 and limit Australia’s overall pollution. The government wants to slash Australia’s emissions by up to 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020 if the United Nations can agree on tough global targets at a Copenhagen summit in December.

If the Senate rejects legislation twice in three months, Australia’s constitution allows Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to call a snap election before his three-year term has expired.

Such an early election fought on the issue of climate change is expected to favor Rudd’s center-left Labor Party, which opinion polls suggest remains far more popular than the center-right Liberal Party opposition.

Analysts expect that if the Senate knocks back the legislation again in November, Rudd could call an election in early 2010.

Senate Liberal leader Nick Minchin, who commands the largest voting bloc in the upper house chamber, said the bills should be put "in the deep freeze" until after the Copenhagen meeting and a U.S. Senate debate on an American emissions permit trading scheme.

Wong said the government wants the legislation passed before the Copenhagen meeting, to avoid sending the message that Australia is "going backward on climate change."

The reactions of environmental groups to the legislation’s defeat were mixed, while business groups including the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry urged the government and opposition to quickly reach a compromise.