The Coalition has taken aim at Labor's promise to put $3 billion into child care, calling it an "unfunded bandaid" for the sector.

Key points: Labor promises to lift childcare rebate to $10,000 from January if elected

Labor promises to lift childcare rebate to $10,000 from January if elected Says promise will be funded by general budget revenue

Says promise will be funded by general budget revenue Peak childcare body welcomes changes, but says wider reform is needed

In one of its biggest promises of the campaign, the Opposition has pledged to boost the childcare benefit.

It said this would help more than 800,000 low- and middle-income families by up to $31 per child per week.

Labor is also promising to lift the childcare rebate cap from $7,500 to $10,000 a year per child, to help more than 100,000 families. This rebate is available to all families, regardless of income.

But Treasurer Scott Morrison took aim at the promise, labelling it a "fantasy".

"Labor is making promises with money that simply isn't there. What that means is they are making promises they will be unable to deliver," he said.

"Remember it was Labor who, when they were last in government, they promised to build 260 new childcare centres. That's very akin to the sort of rhetoric we are hearing from them today — but they built just 38."

"The reason for that is Labor always promises big to families, but doesn't deliver. One of the key reasons for that is they promise spending with money that just isn't there."

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten maintained Labor would be able to fund the changes, although he indicated that the ALP would not reveal its full policy costings until the last week of the campaign.

Mr Shorten focused on how Labor's announcement would help parents who are struggling to find a childcare place for their child.

"We need to make sure that child care remains affordable, it remains quality and it remains fair," he said.

"Child care makes the difference as to whether or not mums are able to go to work, whether children get the best start in life."

The boost would start on January 1 next year — 18 months ahead of the Government planned $3 billion changes.

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Education Minister Simon Birmingham rubbished the announcement, saying Mr Shorten could not explain how it would be paid for.

"Labor had a monumental failure in both childcare policy and budget policy from Bill Shorten and the Labor Party," he said.

"Mr Shorten was asked seven or eight times to say how he would pay for the additional $3 billion in spending, and he had not the faintest idea.

"Mr Shorten wants to junk those reforms we've proposed in favour of a short-term, unfunded band-aid."

The Government's policy is, in part, being held up by the Senate's refusal to back changes to Family Tax Benefit payments.

Labor said it had supported $9 billion in social services and childcare savings and insists the child care announcement would be fully funded.

Peak body welcomes changes but calls for wider reform

The sector's peak body Early Childhood Australia (ECA) welcomed the funding, but said wider changes were needed.

"This is a substantial boost within the current system, which will help all families meet the increasing costs of child care in the short term," ECA president Ros Cornish said.

"Full reform of the subsidy system must ensure that all children have access to a minimum of two days per week of quality early learning, regardless of their parents' ability to work or study," she said.

Labor said it would give the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Education Department powers to stop providers pocketing the additional funding.

It said it would try to prevent new funding pushing up prices for parents.

"The announcement that we make today is about assisting Australian families, not about boosting the profits of our child care providers," Shadow Education Minister Kate Ellis said.

"We have gone out of our way to make sure that we are clamping down with new powers, both for the ACCC and the department, to investigate and respond to unjustified price increases in the sector."