This article provides commentary that focuses on school-parent relations in Australia through exploration of schools in the state of Victoria across three aspects: school-parent partnership, parental involvement in the governance of schools, and parental involvement in school accountability processes. Parental involvement is typically at a level controlled by the school, rather than a more participatory and reciprocally influential activist level. At a time when there is a renewed emphasis on autonomy for schools in Victoria, it is suggested that there is urgency for research focused on an activist orientation, rather than the controlled parental involvement currently evident.