NSW will provide affordable and accessible child care if the federal government fails to make real progress on the issue.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean, who has previously put pressure on his federal colleagues by adopting more progressive policies on climate change, issued the challenge in a speech at the NSW Women of the Year awards in Sydney on Wednesday.
"We know that women take on the bulk of the caring responsibilities in our families," he said.
"Now is the moment for our country to commit to universal, affordable and accessible child care before this decade is done," he said.
"It's too important for the future prosperity of all the people of NSW for the state to do anything other than lead Canberra once again."
Child care was a critical "national issue" that should not be left in the "policy graveyard" of federal-state relations ahead of the federal budget, he said.
"In doing so, we will improve the lives of every person - men and women right across NSW and indeed right across the country."
His promise to make child care a national agenda item comes on the back of a new national Safety, Respect, Equity campaign calling for legislating free and accessible childcare as one of its main policy planks.
Australia has dropped to 50th place on the Global Gender Gap rankings.
The federal Workplace Gender Equality Agency estimates it will be 26 years before the wage gap between men and women closes.
