Red Symons apologises for 'racist' ABC podcast

ABC broadcaster Red Symons has apologised for his racially loaded comments last week when he asked a guest "what's the deal with Asians?" and if she was "yellow".

This morning Symons issued a public apology after the 20-minute podcast – which was deleted from the ABCs website – garnered criticism from listeners.

"I came across as racist and I was wrong in the way I conducted the interview,” he said. “I offer my sincerest apologies. We need to talk about these issues, but be careful how we consider them."

Last Friday, Symons was interviewing Beverley Wang, host of the podcast It's Not A Race, when he said he had a similar idea for a segment.

"Except my segment was called 'What's the deal with Asians?' " he said.

The former Hey Hey It's Saturday panellist and Skyhooks guitarist asked Wang: "Are you yellow?"

"Do they speak Mandarin or Cantonese?" Symons asked.

"Who's they?" Wang replied.

"The people in Taiwan." Symons retorted.

"In Canada, where I'm from, they speak English and French," Wang said.

"But you're probably from the west coast of Canada," Symons said.

When Wang asked why the host would make that assumption he replied: "Because it's closer to Asia".