WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls has urged voters to ignore One Nation candidates without track records and the mining industry's aggressive campaign to oust him from his seat.
As he launched the Nationals' WA election campaign, a Newspoll suggested a poor election result for the party, including a primary vote of only five per cent, compared to 13 per cent for a potential number three party in One Nation.
However, a swing against the Liberal Party means if the vote is close it would need the Nationals, which hold seven out of 59 lower house seats, to form government.
Mr Grylls, the housing minister, put on a defiant front pointing to his achievements securing many billions of dollars for infrastructure in the bush since 2008 through the Royalties for Regions scheme that he secured as a condition of backing the Barnett government.
He dismissed the polls and was upbeat about the party's prospects, despite facing the real prospect of losing his seat.
That is partly the result of a multimillion dollar Chamber of Minerals and Industry advertising campaign warning people his proposed $5 a tonne tax on BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto will wreck the WA economy.
"I've been an MP since 2001 and built a track record of being able to read the electorate and I'm confident of my political policy decisions and very confident the people of the Pilbara understand the difference between politicians that can deliver an outcome and one that can complain about imaginary problems," he told the party faithful.
He also urged people to "stare down" the Rio and BHP's campaign against him, passionately stating they could afford to and should pay his $5 a tonne special lease rental fee - an increase from 25 cents set in the 1960s.
"I will stare down the barrel of the biggest industry led campaign in Western Australian political history," he said.
There was genuine anger among Nationals members at the "lies" in the campaign against their leader, with MP Colin Holt warning that if Mr Grylls loses his seat it would increase the party's determination to impose the tax.
Mr Grylls says his plan will reap $7.2 billion over four years for the beleaguered state budget while alternative, such as the Liberals' privatisation of Western Power involves "crossing its fingers".
Premier Colin Barnett set up a showdown with Mr Grylls if the Nationals hold the balance of power and demand the tax, saying "it's never going to happen".
Mr Grylls had suggested this week that Mr Barnett would cave in.
The premier, for his part, had criticised the campaign against Mr Grylls on Thursday saying he did not know what the mining industry - which contributed to former PM Kevin Rudd's demise over a mining profits tax - "was up to".
CME chief executive Reg Howard-Smith defended its role, saying he had an obligation to inform the community about a job destroying mining tax proposal that he claims would cost 3,400 WA jobs.
