Australia FM: Thatcher 'unabashedly racist'

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr described Margaret Thatcher as "unabashedly racist" when asked for his memories of the former British premier.

Carr, whose wife Helena is Malaysian, was speaking during a high-level diplomatic mission to China.

He said that after her retirement Thatcher had warned him that Australia would be over-run by Asian migrants.

"I recall one conversation I had with her in her retirement where she said something that was unabashedly racist where she warned Australia, talking to me with Helena standing not far away, against Asian immigration saying that if we allowed too much of it we'd see the natives of the land, the European settlers, overtaken by migrants," Carr said.

"I couldn't believe it. It reminded me that despite yes, her greatness on those big questions - the role of the state, the evil nature of communist totalitarianism - there was an old fashioned quality to her that was entirely