Academics accuse Abbott of politicising curriculum Educators have responded to Tony Abbott's attack on the national history curriculum by accusing him of planning to put a political stamp on the subject if he wins office. In an address to the National Press Club on Monday, Mr Abbott bemoaned the national history curriculum's "focus on issues which are the predominant concern of one side of politics." "I think the unions are mentioned far more than business," he said. I think there are a couple of Labor prime ministers who get a mention, from memory, not a single Coalition prime minister. An HSC-level unit in the curriculum on Australian history from 1919 to the World War II explicitly refers to former Liberal prime minister Robert Menzies. Students do study labour movements, in topics on the industrial revolution, conscription and the emergence of political parties. Louise Zarmati Wood, from the University of Western Sydney, one of the authors of the national curriculum, defended it against Mr Abbott's criticism: "They need to sit down and read it before they make these statements because that is factually incorrect," she said. [The labour movement] is one of the foundational points in our country, but we look at the Menzies era too. It's an attempt to put his own political stamp on [history]. Labor said Mr Abbott was planning to intervene in the curriculum and reignite the so-called "history wars." "Disregarding the years of work by curricula experts and months of consultation, Mr Abbott foreshadowed his intention to insert lessons on Coalition prime ministers," the Minister for Education, Bill Shorten, said. Mr Shorten said the curriculum had been developed independently and approved by all state governments. But Mr Abbott ruled out dictating any changes. The so-called history wars flared up under former prime minister John Howard, with fiery debates between liberal and conservative thinkers about how to accurately characterise Australia's colonial past. Disputes arose between historians including over the treatment of the stolen generations and the extent of white killing of Aboriginal people.