TED Baillieu might be only 10 months into his first term, but when it comes to muscling up against Canberra, he's already had plenty of practice. The Premier reckons Julia Gillard has tried to dud her home state on several fronts, from the carbon tax and GST revenue to infrastructure funding and mandatory limits on pokie machines.

But a new battleground has emerged between the two tiers of government, whereby almost 10,000 Victorian kids have become the pawns in a petty political game. Boiled down, it's a Mexican standoff over childcare, a funding dispute worth a measly $1.9 million to save a much-needed community program: the Take A Break occasional childcare service.

Take A Break was established in Victoria 15 years ago to give parents, particularly mothers in country towns, the chance to do exactly that. For a small fee, parents get to take a break from their children - for a few hours a week - to go to the doctor, work on the farm, look for a job. Or just sit without worrying about those adorable, screaming kids. In turn, the kids get to socialise in an early learning environment that helps prepare them for kindergarten or school. With more than 220 centres across the state, it's what you'd call a ''low-cost, high-impact'' program.

That's right: $1.9 million. That's less than the $2 million we're spending to boost prizemoney for jumps racing, or to set up a business case for a new male prison. It's also less than the $4 million used to reinstate fox bounties or to breed fish for recreational fishing. And it's significantly less than the $212 million we'll spend putting two armed guards on every railway station. You could argue these things are important but, surely, so too are the childcare centres now at risk of closing.

Victoria, however, isn't budging. The state government argues childcare is a federal responsibility and picking up the slack would set a bad precedent. ''Levels of government can't just abrogate their responsibilities and expect the next level of government to pick it up,'' says Lovell, who has put about $850,000 on the table and wants the Commonwealth to chip in the rest. ''We're happy to continue with the state funding, provided the Feds put theirs in.''

But her federal counterpart, Kate Ellis, says Canberra stopped funding the national program more than a year ago and since then, states such as Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia have continued to support the service, so why can't Victoria do the same?

Both have a point - you just wish they'd put politics aside and sort it out. Until last year, Victoria's Take A Break service was jointly funded between the state and federal governments. But Canberra cut its share in its 2010 budget, and the Brumby government agreed to subsidise it until the end of June this year. When Baillieu came to office, he was faced with a tighter-than-expected budget, but funded the program until the end of December. After that, it's every centre for itself.

At the heart of this stoush is a broader debate about the need for governments to provide sustainable models of childcare to families, especially those in regional and rural communities.

Take a Break centres are faced with a grim choice: increase fees for parents or close. Already, centres in Swifts Creek and The Basin have said they'll be forced to shut. Dozens are also faced with the double whammy of funding cuts and the loss of their indemnity insurance once those cuts kick in. Others know they'll have to turn to fund-raising if they want to survive.

Baillieu is also feeling the heat: what started out as a trivial funding dispute has now turned into a political pressure point, particularly in country-held Liberal and National seats (including Lovell's in northern Victoria) where the Victorian Farmers Federation, the Country Women's Association, local families and the state opposition have all joined forces to demand a rethink.

It's ironic for the Premier, given the premium he has always placed on children's services. Anyone who has seen Baillieu in action knows he's in his element around children. As opposition leader, it was Baillieu who pushed for preschools to become a part of the education department - which Labor eventually adopted - to give more emphasis to early childhood development. And this year, in his first major speech to Parliament as Premier, he produced a ''families statement'' spruiking his commitment to family services.

Yet against the backdrop of state-federal relations, Baillieu is playing hardball. Some might say it's clever politics - there's nothing new in standing up to the Commonwealth, especially if it gives Tony Abbott another stick with which to whip the Gillard government (the federal Coalition has vowed to reinstate federal funding if elected at the next poll). But when you think about what's at stake - and the small amount of money involved - surely that's worth more than political point scoring.

Farrah Tomazin is state politics editor. Twitter: @farrahtomazin