Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett has held a meeting with the leaders of the state’s resources industry to try to convince them to award more work to local manufacturers and contractors.

The manufacturers and contractors have complained they have been denied a fair share of the mining and petroleum projects under development.

Thirteen of the state’s biggest resources companies – including Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Apache Energy, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinton and Woodside – were represented at the meeting.

The meeting was held as local manufacturing unions launched an ad campaign on the issue. The industry-union campaign will feature a march along Perth's St Georges Terrace next month to demand Mr Barnett secure more skilled work for local business. 

The unions have demanded Mr Barnett introduce legislation to enforce local-content provisions in all big projects.

Western Australia accounts for almost three-quarters of the $132 billion of planned investment in Australian mining and energy projects.

Mr Barnett has ruled out imposing quotas, but has raised concern that local content has slipped from 90 per cent to below 50 per cent. "Local content is a real issue. Despite investment, steel fabricators are not getting the work I expected," he said.

Industry sources acknowledge that local steel fabricators are missing out on work, but point out that many of the specialist skills and services needed to build big projects can be accessed only overseas.

They also say the ability of Australian companies to compete with those in countries such as China and South Korea appears to have been eroded due to labour costs and a higher dollar.