It was not until the Fraser Liberal government's review of immigration law in 1978 that all selection of prospective migrants based on country of origin was entirely removed from official policy.

Grassby did however push for more immigration from non-English-speaking countries, "banned racially selected sporting teams from playing in Australia and repealed the law that required Indigenous Australians to seek permission before going overseas.

"[6] As the White Australia policy had been formally revoked in 1973, Grassby's actions provoked disquiet among sections of the Australian community, including in his Riverina electorate and some of his ALP colleagues, who thought his reforms too radical for the period.

Grassby resigned in the wake of the Nagle inquiry, which found he had been involved in the attempts to table false claims about murdered political candidate Donald Mackay's family.

[7] Grassby published a number of books,[8] including a biography of early Australian Prime Minister Chris Watson and various studies of multiculturalism in Australia.

[10] In 1980, Grassby was charged with criminal defamation when it was alleged that he had asked a New South Wales state politician, Michael Maher, to read in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly a document that imputed that Barbara Mackay and her family solicitor were responsible for the disappearance (and probable murder) of her husband Donald Mackay, a prominent Riverina businessman who had been a Liberal candidate against Grassby in 1974.

[11] Maher, when asked why Grassby had made the request, replied that it was a matter of his own Sydney electorate's demographics: "I had the biggest concentration of Italians in Haberfield, Five Dock, Concord and Drummoyne.

[15] After Grassby's death, a number of revelations were made in the media, particularly in relation to his links with the Calabrian Mafia (known as the 'Ndrangheta) in Griffith and to the events surrounding the murder of Donald Mackay.

One of Al Grassby's closest associates was Toni Sergi, the man identified in court and in Parliament as the Mafia leader who ordered the execution of Donald Mackay.

[17] A decision, in 2007, by the Australian Capital Territory's Labor Chief Minister Jon Stanhope to erect a statue of Al Grassby in Canberra has been the subject of some controversy.