On this day in 1974, The Canberra Times was reporting on the health of the wife of the Minister for Immigration, who had collapsed after a terrifying phone call.
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Ellnor Grassby had become exhausted after receiving several threatening letters and calls from "telephone maniacs" over the past 18 months.
Police were investigating claims that the threats were a pushback against the Whitlam government's immigration policies. The minister, Al Grassby, said he regarded the campaign against himself and his family as both disgusting and cowardly.
Mr Grassby described advertisements placed by the Immigration Control Association as racist. One ad read "Don't let Grassby turn your country into a trouble-racked, multi-coloured mess", and another claimed the policies were "deliberately and recklessly creating a coloured community in Australia".
Mr Grassby was considering the possibility of taking legal action against the association and said he would like to see it "put its poison before the court and the Australian public".
