Far-right extremism, neo-Nazism and racist hatred have become a growing concern as the Indigenous voice referendum looms.
Australians will take to the ballot box in just over a week to vote on whether an Indigenous advisory body should be enshrined in the constitution.
As the 'yes' and 'no' campaigns have ramped up, misinformation has swirled and extremist groups have come out of the woodwork.
Asked on Thursday whether she was concerned about a rise in neo-Nazi groups and hatred in the lead-up to the referendum, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said she was "really worried".
"We're seeing over time in Australia different types of groups who pop up, selecting different ideologies ... being radicalised and joining these communities online, working together and getting more violent in their radical activities," she told Nine's Today Show.
Neo-Nazis gatecrashed the end of a Melbourne anti-voice rally in September where they performed salutes and revealed a banner that said "Voice = anti white".
Anti-vaccine and pro-Vladimir Putin commentator Simeon Boikov attended a similar rally in Sydney.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess previously said the intelligence agency was keeping a close eye on the referendum amid concerns far-right groups could use the discussion to drive recruitment and spread their ideology.
However the official 'no' campaign led by Fair Australia has tried to distance itself from extremists.
Indigenous senator and face of the progressive 'no' movement Lidia Thorpe was reportedly sent a video of a neo-Nazi making racist remarks, performing the Nazi salute and burning the Aboriginal flag earlier this week.
But it is unclear whether this is directly related to the referendum.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese compared the situation to the zeitgeist around the Labor government's 2007 Stolen Generations apology.
"There were a lot of fear campaigns about that - all sorts of talk about nonsense, none of which have eventuated," he told Ten News on Thursday.
"What the no campaign has done, assisted by some in the media, is to raise a whole lot of issues that have nothing to do with what this referendum is.
"I sincerely hope Australians open their hearts ... (the Uluru Statement from the Heart is) an open invitation by Indigenous Australians to walk with them on the journey of reconciliation."
Meanwhile, former prime minister Tony Abbott is maintaining his opposition to the voice, saying it is "wrong in principle and will be bad in practice".
"It will further entrench this separatism, which has bedevilled Aboriginal policy since the days of Gough Whitlam," he told ABC Radio National on Thursday.
"Aboriginal people are fine Australians and they should be encouraged to integrate into the mainstream of our society."
The idea First Nations Australians do not have a voice was untrue, Mr Abbott said, pointing to Indigenous leaders like Noel Pearson and Marcia Langton who he claimed "have been running Aboriginal policy for the last 30 years".
He also claimed the voice would not solve the problems Indigenous Australians live with.
"The idea that 24 people in Canberra is going to radically change all of that ... is frankly fanciful."
