This article illuminates the significance of the Child Care Act 1972 (Cwlth) as a critical juncture in the development of Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy and, specifically, in establishing quality as a key policy consideration. The article reports on an analysis of the Act, informed by Foucault's use of a history of the present, that highlights dominant discourses and path-dependent processes as both enabling and constraining for quality in child care and the development of a national ECEC sector. (author abstract)