John Howard has accused Opposition Leader Bill Shorten of being out of touch with middle Australia after he labelled critics of a gay and lesbian-focused schools program homophobes.
The Turnbull government has ordered a review of the Safe Schools anti-bullying program following concerns raised by conservative backbenchers including Cory Bernardi.
"To say that anybody who is alarmed about this Safe Schools booklet is a homophobe, really, Mr Shorten, you are out of touch," the former prime minister told Sky News on Sunday.
Mr Shorten and Senator Bernardi exchanged sharp words over the controversial taxpayer-funded program last week.
"At least I'm not a homophobe," Mr Shorten told the outspoken senator.
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Mr Howard acknowledged that bullying against homosexuals or transgender people was quite unacceptable and caused an enormous amount of pain and grief.
"But you don't need to be pursuing such a social agenda, as this document is clearly pursuing, in order to deal with bullying," Mr Howard said.
