"I respect in the end it (the tour) is a matter for them," Howard told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Friday.
"I have had some discussions about it with the people in Cricket Australia. I don't want to go into those."
"I simply say in the end it is a matter for them to decide."
England's cricket board (ECB) has delayed a decision on whether to tour Zimbabwe in October until after a meeting with the sport's ruling body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), in March.
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England pulled out of a World Cup match in Harare last year because of security concerns.
Australia went ahead with their World Cup game in Bulawayo without incident. The world champions had cancelled a tour of Zimbabwe in 2002 because of security issues.
TOUR OPPOSED
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Wednesday his Australian government opposed the country's cricket tour to Zimbabwe.
Downer said the government was concerned about the security of the players and the political statement that Australia's decision to tour the troubled African nation would make.
CA chief executive James Sutherland responded by saying representatives of CA and the players would conduct a pre-tour inspection of Zimbabwe in March, and the final decision would be made on security and safety issues only.
Howard added on Friday he would seek the advice of experts on the security situation in Zimbabwe.
"If the security situation changes, it could be different," Howard said.
"At the time of the World Cup, I had the view that if all of the countries agreed not to play against Zimbabwe then that would be sending a very strong message to Mugabe."
"The one thing I wasn't willing to do then was to try and stop the Australian team going and thereby expose the Australian team to the risk of penalty and therefore disadvantage the Australian team in the competition."
The ICC said on Thursday all Test-playing countries had a binding commitment that political considerations should not be a factor "when reviewing playing obligations".
