Business and parents are pleased Tony Abbott has dumped his signature paid parental leave scheme but are worried there are no details about a replacement childcare package.
The new package would make care more affordable and ease pressure on family budgets, the prime minister told the National Press Club on Monday.
"That bigger parental leave scheme is off the table," he said, conceding it was one of his two controversial captain's calls.
"It's not going to happen."
Instead, the government will spend the next few months consulting on its "better and fairer" childcare and families policy.
Labor lashed out at the prime minister for dumping the PPL - which it never supported - with families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin saying Mr Abbott's word now meant nothing.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Kate Carnell said boosting childcare support was the only sensible approach to increasing workforce participation.
The chamber has always had doubts about the six-month wage-replacement parental leave scheme, which was to be funded by a 1.5 per cent levy on big business.
Ms Carnell asked Mr Abbott to clarify whether that levy had been pushed off the table along with the leave scheme.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon believes the leave scheme had always been an "extravagant indulgence" when the real "barbecue-stopper" was the cost of child care.
Mr Abbott still supports better paid parental leave but says he's accepted now isn't the right time to implement it.
Family advocacy group The Parenthood is glad the prime minister has been listening.
However, it had hoped to get some more details about what the government is actually planning to do, executive director Jo Briskey said.
Labor and the Greens are demanding the government release a Productivity Commission report into child care, ahead of a March 23 deadline for its tabling in parliament.
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