WA premier welcomes federal budget

Western Australia's Liberal Premier Colin Barnett has welcomed the budget's tax concessions for small to medium sized businesses as a highlight that was particularly important for the state.

The state is the most affected by what Treasurer Scott Morrison said in his budget speech was a transition from an unprecedented mining investment boom to a stronger, more diverse, new economy.

"The forecast for the Australian economy, with steady growth and unemployment remaining at current levels, if achieved is a good outcome," Mr Barnett said.

"This federal budget clearly addresses the structural change that is taking place in the Australian economy.

"I was pleased to see Perth's defence manufacturing industry was explicitly referred to and acknowledged in the Treasurer's budget speech."

The bulk of a recent contract to build 12 new submarines will be done in South Australia, but Mr Barnett says WA companies will do most of the maintenance work.

However the Labor opposition's treasury spokesman Ben Wyatt said it was outrageous that WA had received no money for public transport while $2.9 billion was going to infrastructure in western Sydney, considered a key election battleground.

"The budget has forgotten Western Australia is a third of the land mass... that is just an outrageous raid on WA's GST to return nothing by way of significant rail infrastructure spend," he told AAP, referring to the state's lowest share of GST in the country.