It is responsible for negotiating the salaries and working conditions of its members with the New South Wales government and agencies.

The first Annual Conference of Federation in 1919 had listed as part of the agenda "inadequacy of teachers' salaries, understaffing of schools, unwieldiness of classes, insufficiency of accommodation, conducting of classes in sheds, corridors and unsuitable rooms to the detriment of the health of teachers and pupils".

In 1955 Doris Margaret Osborne pointed out that she had taken a higher position of deputy-headmistress at Fairfield Girls' High School but this was effectively a one way journey.

[1] In 1961, 241,000 signatories for a National Education Petition were presented to the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, calling for Commonwealth funding to state schools.

This was the culmination of a long campaign begun in the 1940s, to encourage the Commonwealth Government to fund certain programs in State schools.

This number of signatories was a record which was only broken in 1993 by a petition calling for private health insurance to be tax deductible.

The Federation made a major break with the past in 1968, its 50th anniversary, when the first statewide strike was called over the conditions in which teachers were working.

Since the 1990s, the Federation has campaigned to support public education in the face of rapidly expanding government funding for private schools.

In partnership with parents and principals, the Federation engages in political lobbying, promotion and advocacy in support of free, secular and universal public education for every child and young person.