"And fortunately in this case, what is good for our nation in naval ship building is not only good for South Australia, it is also great for Western Australia because we have two very capable naval ship building centres in this country.

"Both states under our naval ship-building plan will benefit and will grow significantly and both locations will have thousands of multi-generational jobs to sustain this industry."

Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick, who has been campaigning for the work to stay in South Australia, said the case to move didn't stack up.

He said there would be political pushback on the federal government from South Australia.

"Don't try and fix what is not broken," he said.

"For us it is $350 million, maybe $400 million a year, there are about 700 or 800 companies involved in the supply chain and 700 direct jobs.

"It's important to us, but more importantly, the case to shift does not stack up.

"Is the Western Australian government willing to put a billion dollars into the move? Are they willing to put all of the money into training?

"And how do they mitigate against the loss of capability in the meantime?"

In June, Senator Patrick and fellow South Australian Centre Alliance senator Stirling Griff wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison seeking a public assurance Collins class maintenance would stay in their state.

The crossbench senators, who play a crucial role in determining the fate of Coalition bills, told Mr Morrison his response to their request for a public assurance would "significantly influence our approach to dealing with the government's legislative program in the Senate".

On Monday morning Mr Papalia said moving full cycle docking for the submarine to WA would be in the national interest, create more than 3000 jobs and add up to $8.4 billion to the state's Gross State Product.

"Collins class submarines will be vital to Australia’s Navy for many years and Western Australia is ready to play a greater role," he said.

"Defence West is working closely with Defence to ensure WA is ready to meet the current and future needs of the nation."

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In February, taxpayer-owned shipbuilder ASC revealed it had been commissioned by the government to come up with options to relocate deep maintenance of the submarine fleet to the west.

The company told Senate estimates it was developing options for beginning full cycle docking of the submarines in WA in 2022, 2024 or 2026, along with a fourth option of remaining in Adelaide.