The lead-up to Friday's Council on Federal Financial Relations meeting has been dominated by discussion about a road user charge on electric vehicles.
But the federal government hopes there will be more progress on nationalising the patchwork of state and territory licensing laws that make it harder for workers to move across borders, increasing compliance costs and hampering productivity.
Aligning occupational requirements across jurisdictions and with overseas standards could yield Australia's economy a windfall of almost $4 billion per year, the government's in-house think tank the Productivity Commission found.
The government has started implementing a national licensing scheme for electricians, which Dr Chalmers said would ease workforce shortages holding back housing supply.
Innes Willox, chief executive of employer organisation Ai Group, said Australia's rigid state-based occupational licensing regime was "one of the last vestiges of our colonial era".
"Archaic rules preventing tradies from working seamlessly in both Albury and Wodonga or Coolangatta and Tweed Heads are simply ludicrous in a modern economy," he said.
"The treasurers' meeting is hopefully an important step in ending outdated rules and regulations generally that hold our economy back.
"We hope the treasurers move quickly."
Dr Chalmers said the meeting was all about advancing the consensus reached at the economic reform roundtable.
"So many of the productivity levers exist in the states, and that's why we work so closely with them and why tomorrow's meeting is so important," he told parliament on Thursday.
"A big focus will be cutting red tape, making it easier for skilled workers to go where they're needed most, so that tradies can save time and money."
Also on the meeting agenda will be faster project approvals, harmonising regulation, boosting housing supply and designing a road user charge, Dr Chalmers said.
A commitment to progress a national model to ensure EV drivers pay their fair share of road maintenance costs was one of the key outcomes from the August economic roundtable.
South Australia and Victoria have been tasked with drawing up an options paper detailing what a potential levy on EV users could look like, while NSW has legislated a 2.974c per km levy on EVs to come into effect by 2027 or when they make up 30 per cent of new sales.
But a 2023 High Court ruling declaring a state-imposed levy unconstitutional has put the NSW law in limbo and left the ball in the federal government's court.
Dr Chalmers has ruled out applying the charge to all road users, as that would mean double-taxing petrol and diesel drivers who already pay for road maintenance through the fuel excise.
But the treasurer is not expecting to determine the final detail of the model at the meeting.
Rather, he would listen to the state and territories' views and discuss the broader principles that would drive the policy design, making sure it does not deter the uptake of EVs, he said.
