Australia's peak childhood body has called for caution around the Turnbull government's push for childcare centres to charge parents by the hour, not the day.
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On Monday, Education Minister Simon Birmingham said that while the government was not forcing centres to change the way they billed as part of the new families package, it was encouraging them to consider it.
But Early Childhood Australia has warned that centres charge by the day to give parents choice in terms of when they pick up and drop of their children.
"You need that flexibility," chief executive Samantha Page said.
Ms Page added that a move towards hourly billing would not necessarily result in cheaper fees for parents. She explained that daily billing meant that centres could open earlier and close later, providing care for children at non-peak times that may not be as profitable.
Ms Page warned that while parents might be "seduced" by the idea of hourly billing, ultimately it could see centres reduce their opening hours to only cover times when there were lots of children in care, or fee increases.
"[The government] needs to do some proper analysis on what will be the likely impact," she said.
Earlier this year, when commenting on the families package, Australia's largest childcare provider Goodstart cautioned that if billing was done by the hour, "the hourly costs of these services will increase".
Senator Birmingham said that "in return" for the government lifting some of the restrictions on the number of hours, days and weeks centres have to operate in order to qualify for subsidies, he hoped providers would "provide greater flexibility on terms of the service they provide to parents".
"Right now we do have a situation where many children are booked in for 10 and 12 hour sessions - that's what they're charged for - and yet of course they're routinely there for a much, much shorter period of time," he told ABC Radio in Sydney.
At the moment, centres have to be open for eight hours a day, five days a week, 48 weeks a year to make them eligible for government help with fees.
Under the new arrangements, services will only have to operate for at least 48 weeks a year.
In a statement, Senator Birmingham also said hourly billing was particularly important for children who "primarily" attended childcare to get early years education, rather than because their parents were working.
"After all, nobody expects a three or four year old to engage in 10 to 12 hours of centre-based learning per day. These children will be much better served via access to two or three shorter educational sessions per week."
Labor's spokeswoman for childcare, Kate Ellis, said the government needed to provide "answers" on how the proposal would affect the affordability and viability of services - and on the sector's low-paid workforce.
"This thought-bubble shows that the government simply doesn't understand the early education and care sector," Ms Ellis said.
The government's push for hourly billing was met with support from free market think tank, the Centre for Independent Studies.
"The government's got the right idea. Why should families who only need half a day's worth of childcare be forced to pay for the whole day - and the taxpayer be obliged to shell out accordingly," policy analyst Trisha Jha said.
The childcare changes, which propose to roll multiple childcare payments into one, are expected to be introduced to Parliament in the next fortnight. The bulk of the package is due to be implemented at the start of 2017.
