I believe [ Rajiv Gandhi] had a real sense that he would be assassinated.

In fact, soon after that [South African sanctions], I was going on an official visit to the UK and Margaret Thatcher instructed every minister to clear the decks of any outstanding matters between us - Australia and the Brits. And she went out of her way to make sure that that was as successful a visit as it possibly could be.

I respected [Margaret Thatcher] enormously. She had great integrity in that respect.

I don't know who described Mahathir [bin Mohamad] as a pillar of the Commonwealth, but they don't know what they're talking about.

We [ with Brian Mulroney and Rajiv Gandhi] went to the meeting in Canada [the 1987 Vancouver CHOGM] and I said to them there that sanctions weren't working; they were just being busted. And it did seem to me that one way that we could bring the apartheid regime down would be if we did mount an effective investment sanction.

I really had very little to do with Pierre Trudeau. He was off the scene very soon.

[ Rajiv Gandhi] was such an infinitely more attractive leader than his mother.