For Treasurer Jim Chalmers, this week's jobs and skills summit is the prelude to what will be his main game, the October budget. 

The summit, to be held in Canberra on Thursday and Friday, still has many moving parts, notably in the intense debate we're hearing about what changes should be made to the wages system. But Chalmers can already welcome "a broad appetite" for raising permanent migration from the present cap of 160,000.