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After an initial furor, this curriculum issue remained dormant for the next thirteen years,
emerging again in early 2007 during debates about instituting a national curriculum of which
then-Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd supported (Editorial: The advantages of a national
approach, 2007). It re-emerged again in late 2007 after Rudd became Prime Minister and
speculation mounted about an Apology to Indigenous Australians for the Government’s
policy on removing children from their homes (N. Pearson, 2007). Reports recollected that
Rudd demonstrated a conservative view of Australian history in school curriculum, working
to replace the word “invasion” with other such as “colonisation” and “settlement.” Ferrari and
Wilson reported of the 1994 issue:
The resource for teachers said terms such as settlement, explorer or pioneer were not
acceptable and the preferred term was invasion. After intervention by then premier
Wayne Goss, the cabinet office, of which Mr Rudd was then head, produced a
replacement book, which said many Aborigines interpreted the First Fleet's arrival as
invasion but "colonisation" or "settlement" also accurately described the same event.
(2007, para. 10, emphasis added)
This one-topic issue is an example of the cross over that can occur between school-based
issues and the history/culture wars, with the topic gaining widespread interest both in 1994
when it was first reported and then in 2007 when it resurfaced. Whereas in 1994 it was used
as an example to make a point about alleged school curriculum ‘bias’ on a single State
platform, in 2007 this was extended and used as an example to mount a case for the national
curriculum to be implemented, with The Australian newspaper arguing “giving the federal
government central control of the nation's curriculum would also serve to increase
accountability and transparency in a system that is too often deliberately opaque and
unfriendly when it comes to involving parents” (Editorial: The advantages of a national
approach, 2007, para. 1).
A1.5.3 November 30, 1994: Civics Expert Group report, Whereas the People:
Civics and Citizenship Education.
Written by the Civics Expert Group established by the Keating government in the early
1990s, and chaired by Stuart MacIntyre the report, Whereas the people: Civics and
citizenship education (Civics Expert Group, 1994) took stock of existing citizenship and
civics curriculum and made several key recommendations to foster the improvement of the
citizenship and civics teaching across Australia. Unusual for any issue related to social
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