Saturday's disgraceful exhibition at St. Kilda beach is just one sign of what may be to come as the poll date draws near.

While the turnout, of less than 100 neo-Nazis and alt-right supporters, was tiny in a city of more than three million, the media exposure was enormous.

This is why there is a danger some parliamentarians and their strategists may mistakenly conclude these career rabble rousers and discontents are representative of a much larger force.

There is also the risk some of the Australians already disenchanted with traditional politics and politicians may be tempted to cast protest votes for groups whose motivations and policies they would find abhorrent if only they took the time to look.

While, on the one hand, it is easy to dismiss these fringe groups as irrelevant malcontents with a defensible place in the democratic process, there is real danger in giving them any form of support.

We have, as Australians were recently surprised to discover, a complex and whimsical electoral system under which it is possible to get elected to the Senate with just 19 primary votes.

It is no coincidence Fraser Anning, the accidental Senator from Queensland who accomplished that feat, was on the ground in St Kilda blowing his own trumpet in what even he admits is likely to be a vain attempt to hang on to his seat on the weekend.

While Anning, who has fallen out with both Pauline Hanson and Bob Katter in what promises to be a very short political career, was the only sitting parliamentarian foolhardy enough to turn up, one or two others would have been watching with interest.

Anning's willingness to stick his neck out should have come as no surprise. Given he expects the taxpayers to pick up the cost of his trip he literally had nothing to lose.

The weekend's events were timely given former Liberal prime minister, John Howard's remarks at the recent release of the 1996-1997 Cabinet documents.

While not regretting his courageous action in implementing gun law reform in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, Howard acknowledged it had helped the rise of One Nation.

"I think it did contribute to the One Nation insurgency," he said. "The flannel shirts who felt their guns had been taken away unfairly rallied to ... Hanson".

Even sensible and well thought out legislation that has overwhelming community support can radicalise those on the more extreme fringes of the political spectrum.

Appeasement is never the answer. Australian politics has always been about the middle, about tolerance, the fair go, and egalitarianism.

The mainstream parties, while fighting for their own political prospects, also have a responsibility to be on guard against even accidental support for groups and individuals with odious platforms widely regarded as objectionable by the vast majority of fair-minded voters. History teaches us there are always risks these views can be given disproportionate representation in the battle to pass sensible reforms or shore up numbers.