TIM PALMER: A new history of Australia will be launched by the Governor General in Melbourne today, just as the Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne is indicating he's happy to reopen the so-called history wars.

One of the editors of the new Cambridge History of Australia is the prolific and left leaning academic professor Stuart Macintyre.

A decade ago he wrote The History Wars, critiquing the reinterpretation of European settlement in Australia. He says the Federal Government would be well advised to refrain from re-opening old debates....