This paper illustrates the value of strategic alignment as a model to navigate the current Australian education landscape, highlighting numerous changes to national overseeing bodies and their mandates. More importantly, it provides a critical review of recent government agency changes and policy agendas, making overt the existence of complex and incoherent ideas concerning the notion of early childhood. Based on the current analysis, it is concluded that no common conceptualisation exists at the national level of what constitutes early childhood and by default, early childhood education. This is a disturbing state of affairs, which makes the work of responsible statutory agencies, overseeing national bodies and state departments overseeing the implementation of new national policy directives very difficult. (author abstract)