Abbott can't recall Heydon scholar role

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he can't recall Dyson Heydon having been on the panel that selected him for a Rhodes scholarship.

Fairfax Media has reported Mr Heydon was part of the seven-member Rhodes Trust selection committee in NSW that in 1980 approved a Rhodes scholarship for Mr Abbott, who was then a student at Sydney University.

"That's a long time ago and the idea that I gather is being peddled that somehow he and I cooked up a conspiracy 34 years ago against the Labor Party is absurd," Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra on Monday.