Barnaby Joyce reveals personal struggle with New England's 'childcare deserts'

As a result, partner Vicki Campion has struggled to return to work, he said.

"As a journalist, she can't write a column and be managing two boys who are working in unison to do a terrorist attack on the fridge and on the cupboards and other things around the house," he said.

On Saturday, the deputy prime minister announced an election promise to spend $3 million building a new Guyra childcare centre, both doubling its size and shifting it from its current location near the New England Highway.

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He said it was important to increase childcare places in the electorate even in relatively small towns, "making sure that social infrastructure also gets out into the areas so that mums can go to work, which they can't do if they've got to look after the kids, it's just not possible".

"[We're] living that example right now," Mr Joyce said. "This is vital social infrastructure."

A recent report by Victoria University's Mitchell Institute found that the Division of New England has the lowest levels of access in NSW, and among the biggest "childcare deserts" in the country.

The research found that thousands of children in the area were starting school already behind their metropolitan counterparts as a result of poor access to early childhood education.

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For every childcare place in the electorate, there are four children eligible for it, the report said.

About one in four children in the New England are considered "developmentally vulnerable" but 70.6 per cent of them live in a "childcare desert".

Mr Joyce said the family had no access to childcare in the nearest settlement in Danglemah, but they had been able to snag some in Walcha, about half an hour away. One of the boys is in kindergarten and the other is in childcare, he said.

The coalition has committed to spend $3 million on the $4.2 million project to shift the Guyra Early Learning Centre to re-locate to a new, fit-for-purpose centre

The new facility will double childcare spaces, adding about 29 spaces per day for children six years and under, plus also adding 30 out of school hours care, or holiday care spaces.

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