South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas says all but one of the 16 people arrested after neo-Nazi rally in Adelaide at the weekend came from interstate.

Fifteen men and one youth whom police allege are members of the National Socialist Network were arrested on Sunday and charged with various street offences including failing to cease loitering, possessing articles of disguise, hindering and resisting arrest.

They appeared in court in Adelaide on Monday.

“As a society, I think that it demonstrates the need for us to place a high value collectively on a civil political discourse, rather than an extreme one,” Malinauskas told the ABC on Tuesday.

“I wasn’t surprised to learn that of the 16 arrests, only one person was from South Australia and the rest were scattered from all over the country and, for whatever reason, decided to convene in Adelaide.”

A police prosecutor told Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday that at 11am on Sunday, 40 NSN members dressed in black assembled at the South Australian War Memorial.

“That’s the context of the entire group that we’ve got [appearing in court] today,” she said.

“The National Socialist Network is a right-wing extremist group with national socialist ideology.

“The group aims at preparing for a race war which it believes will usher in a white separatist ethno state.”

The charged men are from SA, Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania.

Social media posts instructed members to wear black clothing and black face masks “because it erases our individual identity and absorbs it into a collectivity of the nation”, the prosecutor said.

“A media interview with the National Socialist Network further stated that if they don’t cover up their identities, they lose their jobs.”

Mason James Robbins, 30, from Perth, was the first to appear in court. He was charged with carrying an offensive weapon or article of disguise and using a Nazi symbol.

Under tough laws introduced in SA last year, people found displaying swastikas in public or performing a Nazi salute can be fined up to $20,000 or face a year in jail.

The charge of displaying a Nazi symbol is linked to the wearing of the insignia of the NSN.

There would be an issue “lurking in the background” about “the constitutional protection of the implied freedom of political communication”, Robbins’ lawyer said.

“It gives rise to questions about the validity of any law that seeks to prevent contact and communication between members of, if you like, a political party,” the lawyer said.

But the prosecutor said the groups were “not a political party” and had been involved in a “co-ordinated incident resulting in criminal offences”.

Magistrate Luke David released Robbins on $600 bail, with strict conditions, including an exclusion from the Adelaide city area, a ban on wearing disguises in public, a ban on possessing firearms and a ban on associating with 30 named people and members of the NSN and European Australian Movement.

He returns to court on March 11.

Shannon George Bartel, 24, of Adelaide was also released on $600 bail after appearing on a charge of loitering.

Bartel, who is a removalist, had similar bail conditions imposed, but he was excluded from a smaller area of the Adelaide CBD, including war memorials, statues and monuments.

He returns to court on March 12.

More men are expected to appear on Tuesday afternoon, including James Allan Holliday, 25, from Perth. He is charged with carrying an offensive weapon or article of disguise, using a Nazi symbol, and giving a Nazi salute.

Also yet to appear is the NSN’s leader, far-right activist Thomas Sewell, 31, from Victoria, who is charged with loitering.

A 16-year-old Victorian boy charged with failing to cease loitering was bailed to appear in Adelaide Youth Court on March 21.

A 58-year-old NSW man charged with possessing an article of disguise was given police bail.

‘Horrific scenes’

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the Adelaide march on Monday.

“They were horrific scenes yesterday to have people openly identifying as neo-Nazis and fascists – white supremacists marching through the street,” he said, in comments carried by the Seven Network and other media.

“I congratulate the South Australian Police on the action they took.

“It’s a phenomenon, unfortunately, we have seen in other parts of the industrialised world as well.

“There is no place for this hateful ideology here in Australia or, indeed, anywhere else.”

Adelaide’s Survival Day rally was delayed to ensure the groups did not cross paths.

At a national cabinet meeting last Tuesday, leaders from all states and territories and the federal government discussed antisemitism.

“I know that there is a push to look for a better database nationally, because these people do cross state borders, and also looking at what different laws we have in different states,” SA Attorney-General Kyam Maher said.

He said the weekend arrests were a “very good example” of the need for a national database.

-with AAP