The West Australian Liberal Party will launch a $50,000 advertising campaign on Monday in a bid to turn opposition to the federal government's mining "super tax" into votes at the next election.
The news comes as unions announced they would support the government's plans.
But the proposed 40 per cent resources super profits tax is deeply unpopular in resources-rich Western Australia, which has Australia's only Liberal state government and an 11-seat margin over Labor at the federal level.
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"This new tax will be a disaster for Western Australia - but it can be stopped," WA Liberal Party director Ben Morton said in an appeal to supporters over the weekend.
"The only way to stop this new tax is to change the government."
The Liberal campaign, which claims the new tax would threaten up to 500,000 Australian jobs, will include radio broadcasts and mail drops into electorates where Labor is believed to be vulnerable.
The Liberals have said they are quietly hopeful of picking up the WA federal seat of Hasluck, which they lost at the 2007 election, and which is held by Labor's Sharryn Jackson by just 1.8 per cent.
Labor also holds the seats of Perth, Fremantle and Brand, after losing Swan and Cowan at the last federal election despite an overall swing towards the party in WA.
Mr Morton said the Liberal campaign would be expanded if it received financial support.
"Stage two of the campaign will depend on the financial support we receive to fight this new tax from the WA community," he said.
