Women's Minister Katy Gallagher has been criticised for saying children are better off the earlier they enter early education or childcare, with one advocacy group saying the "mothers of Australia are furious".

Speaking to The Australian, the senior Labor figure ruled out calls from the Nationals to pursue income-splitting for families to encourage parents to spend more time with their newborns.

She said while she was not telling parents what to do, there was evidence the sooner a child enters early education or care, the better prepared they are for formal schooling.

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"For me, it worked. It was the choice I took for my kids and I think they did benefit, overall, from learning how to get on with others and being exposed to that environment," she told the newspaper.

"But I accept parents have different views on this. That's why family daycare has been there, that's why occasional care has been there, long daycare."

The remarks have drawn the ire of some women's and children's advocacy groups. 

Childcare Choice, a national campaign that advocates for parents as the primary carers, said "the mothers of Australia are furious". 

The group's spokesperson, Madeleine Simmons, said the remarks were tone deaf.

"What the minister isn't talking about in anything she has said is the people who it doesn't work for," she said.

"If you've got a child that has type 1 diabetes, putting them into daycare as early as possible doesn't work. If you've got a child who is neurodiverse, putting them into daycare as early as possible doesn't work."

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Early Childhood Australia chief executive Samantha Page said the conversation was more complicated than Gallgaher made it out to be.

"Children can absolutely thrive in early childhood education and care and do well if they've got good, stable educators around them and it's a quality service," she said.

"What we really don't want is very young children in poor-quality services because that is not good for children.

"In Australia, we do have a world-leading quality framework, so we have the foundations of good quality, but what we need to make sure is that every single service is meeting those standards and has stability in the education team."

The federal government has recently proposed an early education and care commission to lead sector-wide reform. 

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