WA govt warns SA it still wants ship work

The WA government says a decision on shipbuilding contracts is not "done and dusted", and it will lobby Canberra to give it work due to go to South Australia.

The WA government says a decision on shipbuilding contracts is not "done and dusted". (AAP)

The Western Australian government has told South Australia it is not admitting defeat on the nation's biggest shipbuilding program, and has set up an office devoted to stealing contracts from its neighbour.

Both the previous Liberal and current Labor governments in WA have been angered that the federal government gave most of the work to South Australia, about $86 billion of the massive $90 billion.

That has been linked to the fact SA has a high number of marginal electorates, and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott originally promised the work when trying to hang on to his position.

The WA government on Friday announced it would set up a Defence West office to grow the industry and a separate position of WA Defence Advocate to specifically lobby Canberra for more work.

A former high-ranking WA military figure had already been identified, Premier Mark McGowan said on Friday.

WA Defence Issues Minister Paul Papalia said many defence contracts were yet to be signed, meaning WA was still in the running should it convince the federal government to change its mind.

"It's not done and dusted ... there is plenty of opportunity to influence decisions down the track as to where the actual construction takes place," he said from the Australian Marine Complex shipbuilding facility in Perth.

WA should be receiving more defence work given more than half the navy was based in the state, it hosted the biggest navy base in the Southern Hemisphere and had existing infrastructure to build and maintain navy vessels, Mr McGowan said.

The recent landslide Labor win in the WA election will be used as leverage to pressure the federal government avoid a similar backlash, and to help make WA's economy more diverse.

"I think the federal government needs to listen, if I was prime minister I would be listening and I would be changing policy and I would be putting more defence work here and fixing the (national distribution of) GST," Mr McGowan said.

Outside of Australia's defence industry, the new Defence West office will also be used to help win work for WA companies with overseas buyers.

Mr McGowan and Mr Papalia held a defence industry consortium on Friday and said biennial Indian Ocean trade shows would be held.