A man who made antisemitic comments that police allege were “unequivocally” aligned with neo-Nazi ideology in front of a cheering crowd at an anti-immigration protest in Sydney has been charged with inciting hatred.
An estimated 2,000 people took part in a March for Australia rally in Sydney on Monday, while hundreds marched in a March for Australia rally in Melbourne, with police working to keep the groups separate from Invasion Day rallies which were held at the same time.
In a livestreamed video from the open mic segment of the Sydney rally, a man wearing a black T-shirt with a “Celtic cross”, a known neo-Nazi symbol, and carrying an Australian flag, took to the stage and made a series of antisemitic comments.
New South Wales police said the man, 31, was stopped after making allegedly inciteful comments during a speech at a protest in Moore Park. He has been charged with publicly inciting hatred on the grounds of race, causing fear, and was refused bail. He will face court on Tuesday.
On Monday afternoon, the NSW police assistant commissioner Brett McFadden said: “We will allege that the language he used, his presence … [generated] hate towards a particular group in our community.”
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Australia’s most prominent neo-Nazi movement, the National Socialist Network (NSN), claimed it would disband by 18 January before new hate speech legislation was introduced to federal parliament that would have it proscribed as a terror group.
McFadden would not comment on whether the man was known to be a member of the former NSN.
The man finished his speech by saying: “Free Joel Davis. Heil White Australia. Heil Thomas Sewell.”
Sewell, a former neo-Nazi leader, is forbidden from entering Melbourne’s CBD as part of bail conditions relating to 25 charges over two incidents in August, including allegedly leading a group attack on a sacred First Nations site.
He is accused of punching a member of Melbourne’s Camp Sovereignty in the collarbone, kicking another occupant and discharging a missile at the camp.
Another man came forward during the open mic session at the Sydney rally on Monday to urge donations to Sewell, who he said was raising funds for a high court challenge against the new federal hate laws.
To cheers from the crowd, the speaker said Sewell had already raised $150,000. The speaker held a sign saying “Free Joel Davis”.
Davis, another known member of the former NSN, is on remand for allegedly threatening independent federal MP Allegra Spender after she condemned a protest that the NSN held last November.
Hundreds of people, many draped in Australian flags, who marched through Sydney and Melbourne on Monday chanted for Davis to be freed.
While neo-Nazis were not obvious at the anti-immigration rallies on Monday, some were in attendance in plainclothes and Guardian Australia saw several people wearing Nazi insignias in the crowds.
Guardian Australia saw two men wearing the Black Sun or sonnenrad insignia at the rally in Melbourne. The younger man had what appeared to be Nordic “Futhark” runes – also used by neo-Nazis – tattooed on his leg.
As the crowd gathered at the steps of state parliament on Spring street, a man handed out flyers for an online news site that publishes white supremacist content.
Guardian Australia spotted several people at the rally in Melbourne who have been identified as former NSN members. In Sydney, organisers said police had escorted former NSN members they recognised away from the rally.
NSW police said they had served one person with a public safety order who was removed from the event.
In Brisbane, at a rightwing “Australia marches” event, which was separate from the March for Australia rallies in Melbourne and Sydney, the longtime One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, was greeted as a hero.
The Queensland senator was mobbed by fans seeking a selfie and welcomed to the stage by a live band performing Hoodoo Gurus’ What’s My Scene, as the crowd waved flags including the red ensign and chanted her name.
Hanson spoke about a broad range of subjects such as climate change, the Albanese government’s anti-hate legislation and her daughter’s political ambitions in Tasmania.
Additional reporting by Penry Buckley and Ariel Bogle
