RUDD GOVT HIGH-TAXING, SAYS BISHOP

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has revealed his socialist leanings with an old-fashioned, high-taxing government not seen in decades, Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop says.

Ms Bishop launched a wide-ranging attack on Mr Rudd and the federal government in an
address to the WA Liberal Party state conference in Perth on Saturday.

She told delegates Mr Rudd had sold himself as an economic conservative who said he
agreed with former prime minister John Howard's economic approach, but his mantra
now was "spend, spend, spend".

"The government is on track to rack up a $200 billion debt, and this has been
revealed as an old-fashioned, high-taxing, high-spending government.

"The hypocrisy of the Labor Party shows no bounds.

"What we are seeing emerge from the (economic) package John Howard liked... it's not
even Paul Keating.

"It's Gough Whitlam without the wit."
Ms Bishop said Mr Rudd's actions were far from those of the economic conservative he
sold himself as before the last federal election.

"What we are seeing is a government that is intent on going down the socialist
path," she said.

"We've not seen this from a Labor government for many decades.

"It's intent on government being at the centre of everything, and in Kevin Rudd's
manifesto published in the monthly magazine recently he stated quite plainly that he
believes that government should be at the centre of our lives."
Ms Bishop said the battle lines had been drawn, and now Labor had emerged as a
socialist-leaning, collectivist government, the Liberal Party could claim the
territory Mr Rudd had tried to steal.

"So the choice at the next election will be clear, and we as the Liberal Party must
stand firm," she said.

"We must ensure that this Rudd Labor government, this socialist-leaning government,
at the centre of your life government, is a one-term government because Australia
cannot afford another term under Kevin Rudd."
The federal government's employment laws were all about building up the unions, Ms
Bishop said.

"It (the union movement) is the lifeblood of the Labor Party, and if they can build
up the union movement they will be so well resourced and so well funded they believe
they will be in government forever," she said.

"That's what the changes to the industrial relations laws are all about."
Ms Bishop said the federal government's economic management was the opposition's
greatest concern.

A win by the Liberal National Party at the Queensland election would send Mr Rudd a
clear message that Australians wanted responsible economic management, she said.

Earlier, West Australian Premier Colin Barnett dismissed the idea that WA might
follow Queensland's example with a merger of the state's Liberal and National
parties.

The two parties formed a minority government after last year's state election
produced a hung parliament, but WA was unlikely to follow Queensland's lead, he told
the conference.

"The arrangement we have now, the sharing of government between the Liberals and
Nationals and Liz Constable as an independent and supporting independents is working
well, and I think Brendon Grylls as a young National party leader, as a young
Nationals member, is doing well."