Australian Parent's Council

On Sunday 22 November 1959, delegates representing seventeen Catholic schools met at St Patrick's College, Prospect,Tasmania, for the purpose of establishing a Federation of Parents and Friends Associations.

The meeting was opened by Mr W J Keegan who welcomed the 44 delegates present, Mr R D Haley was elected chairman of the meeting and Mr P J Doolan minute secretary.

A constitution was adopted and the following office bearers were elected: Mr R D Haley, President; Mr W Phillips, Vice President; Mr A Shirley, Secretary and Mr T O'Rourke, Treasurer; Mrs P Finlay and Messrs D A Kearney, J B Polya, A J Bravo, P Lane, L J McConnon, P G Blizzard, R M Mooney elected members of the Council.

In February 1960, Archbishop Sir Guilford Young accepted the office of Patron. He appointed Father J Dolan, Chaplain to the Federation.
The Tasmanian parents made immediate approaches to political parties and had the full support of Archbishop Young who was held in high regard by all political parties in Tasmania.

The political climate at State level with regard to non-government schools was remarkably favourable. The Advocate of 30th April 1959, in summarising the views of the three Tasmanian political parties at this time on the issue of 'state aid' reported "All Political Parties agree in principle." It further reported:

"Leaders of the three political parties in Tasmania, in their policy speeches for the election on 2 May, gave detailed expression to their views on relationships between State finance and non-State schools. This, in itself, remarks an editorial in the Hobart Catholic weekly 'The Standard', is an historic event in Australian life. All parties have given formal recognition of the importance of the place of these schools in the community.Further, every party has promised to do something in the way of using State resources to assist non-State schools."

At this time Mr Reece was Premier of the Tasmanian Labor Government and transport subsidies to parents of children in non-State schools were being paid. Textbook hire, access to government stores and to the Schools Library Service were promises in the future, as were the Liberal Party's promises to allow government-trained teachers to have the choice of teaching in government or non-government schools and to participate in the State Teachers Superannuation Fund.

The newly formed Democratic Labor Party (DLP) said that in the long-term all schooling should be free. In the short term, in addition to the promises of other parties, there should be interest-free long term loans for school buildings. Despite these comforting words and good intentions Tasmanian parents realised there was a long way to go to obtain equitable funding for non-government school children.

Early records of the APC, the PFFWA and the PFFV especially 1961 and 1962 indicated a clear wish to join with non-government school parents from other states in a national organisation. Distance, cost of travel and accommodation and lack of funds held them back. These factors were a continual problem for the APC in its early years.