GST share rise after 2015/16 pleases WA

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett says he's pleased overall with Joe Hockey's budget, particularly a better than expected improvement in the state's share of GST revenue.

WA will get about 30 cents in the dollar next financial year, down from 37.6 cents currently, but the federal budget on Tuesday showed the state's distribution will rise substantially by 2017/18.

"So the West Australian government can take some confidence in the figures released tonight," Mr Barnett told reporters.

"It does look a little bit better than I thought as you get out to 2017/18 - it's quite strong.

"Maybe we've been through the bottom of the trough."

Mr Barnett said he still wanted to see big changes to the GST distribution formula, with 90 per cent allocated on a per capita basis and the remainder used to support economically weaker states or territories.

A 50 per cent "floor" would be a good step in the meantime.

"We will continue to push for that," he said.

Mr Barnett said fly-in fly-out workers would not like the federal government's move to prevent them from claiming tax offsets for living in remote locations, but he believed it was reasonable.

"It will be more attractive for many people now to live in the north of the state. It will shift the balance towards permanent residential accommodation," he said.

On the Commonwealth's new $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility which will also benefit the Northern Territory and Queensland, Mr Barnett said he hadn't yet seen the detail but he imagined it could be used for expanding roads and increasing the storage capacity of the Ord River dam, which he strongly supported.

Of the $499 million promised to the state, $140 million was provided for the $1 billion Gateway WA project which is expected to be completed in mid-2016.

More than $100 million is also being directed to the NorthLink WA project and $88 million will go towards the Perth Freight Link.

The Great Northern Highway ($77.1 million) and the North West Coastal Highway ($51.3 million) will also benefit from federal infrastructure spending.

Mr Barnett said Mr Hockey's budget would be better received than last year's.

"I think it's an optimistic budget with an emphasis on small business," the premier said.

"The emphasis on infrastructure is also good."