Locals have been left shocked after a right-wing extremist group was seen burning a cross and shouting racist slogans in Victoria over the Australia Day weekend.
Nearly 40 members of the white nationalist group National Socialist Network congregated at Lake Bellfield at the Grampians in western Victoria on Sunday evening.
Witnesses said the group chanted 'white power' and Nazi slogans as they burnt a cross - a ritual associated with the Ku Klux Klan.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission - a civil rights organisation - urged authorities to take action on the extremist group, saying they should be declared as terrorist entities.
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"We do not need to wait for a Christchurch [terror attack] in Melbourne to act," Abravomich said.
"Who would have thought in 2021 Australia, in a week in which we commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the modern face of Hitler would reveal itself in our state without consequence?"
"This group and others, are creating an echo chamber and incubator on the net, taking full advantage of their virtual audience to feed and amplify their vitriolic fantasies about an Aryan Australia, without Jews, Muslims, Aboriginals, the disabled, immigrants, members of the LGBTQI community and anyone else they deem 'inferior'.
"I call on our state and federal governments to lead the fight against the growing problem of racially-based extremism by candidly characterising it and advocating that these groups be added to the terror list."
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Several tourists and residents said they had reported the group of men to police as they continued their rampage through the area while engaging in anti-Semitic and other racist behaviour.
Police later spoke to the men, which included its leader, ex-Australian army soldier turned neo-Nazi Tom Sewell.
The group later posted images to Facebook of the police officers' name badges as well as the neo-Nazi group posing in front of the burning cross and doing Nazi salutes.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was horrified by the allegations and wants the state's police to launch a full investigation.
"I won't comment on individual circumstances because they may well be the subject of Victoria Police work. But I will just say there is no place for that kind of anti-Semitism in our state, there is no place for that sort of bigotry and hatred," he said.
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"There is no place for violence. I would make the point as well, that many would argue, and the international evidence is very clear, and indeed the local evidence, that anti-Semitism is on the rise.
"It's an evil thing, it's a wicked thing, and I just take this opportunity to send a message to the Jewish community across Melbourne and Victoria, you have and continue to make a profound contribution to our state.
"It's hard to imagine so many things we cherish and value, they just wouldn't be in the position they are in, they would not have emerged, they wouldn't be as strong as they are without the contribution the Jewish community has made and no community should be treated that way.
"I know it affects the Jewish community deeply and it offends all of us and there is just no place for that."
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