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King Charles‘s landmark address to Australia’s Parliament House on Monday was disrupted by a protesting Indigenous senator shouting “you are not my king” and accusing him of “committ[ing] genocide against our people”.
The King and Queen Camilla are on a five-day tour of Australia and Charles addressed the Great Hall of Parliament House on Monday in one of the most important engagements of his first visit to the country as monarch.
As he finished his speech, senator Lidia Thorpe approached the stage and shouted for around 30 seconds, saying “this is not your country”.
“You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” said Ms Thrope, an outspoken advocate for Indigenous rights.
“You are not our king, you are not sovereign… You destroyed our land,” she said.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese sat alongside the British royals on the stage as Ms Thorpe, dressed in a long possum skin coat, stood up and drew the attention of fellow senators and members of parliament with her protest, videos of the moment showed.
The camera and the crowd turned towards her as Charles and Camilla watched her outburst without any visible reaction.
She was eventually stopped from approaching the King, who spoke quietly to Mr Albanese on the podium but otherwise appeared unfazed. Ms Thorpe was then escorted out of the chamber and she left yelling: “F*** the colony.”
The King and Queen have faced several low-ley protests during their trip to the former British colony where the King still serves as head of state. Australia remains the only Commonwealth country without a treaty with its Indigenous people. Demonstrators have displayed banners with the word “decolonise” at a number of events since the royal couple arrived on Friday.
Before the protest, Mr Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton welcomed Charles to Parliament House and praised him for his long advocacy over the threat of the climate crisis.
“You have shown great respect for Australians, even during times where we’ve debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the crown,” Mr Albanese said. “Nothing stands still.”
Former prime minister Tony Abbott, an avowed royalist who attended the event, called the protest “unfortunate political exhibitionism”. The Liberal party leader faced a huge backlash in 2014 for unilaterally reintroducing Knights and Dames to the Australian Honours System and awarding the title to Prince Philip.
Businessman Dick Smith said: “That’s the wonderful part of our democracy – that she’s not going to be put in jail.”
Ms Thrope released a statement last week calling for Australia to become a republic and form a treaty with First Nations people.
“As First Peoples, we never ceded our sovereignty over this land. The crown invaded this country, has not sought treaty with First Peoples, and committed a genocide of our people,” the statement said.
“King Charles is not the legitimate sovereign of these lands. Any move towards a republic must not continue this injustice. Treaty must play a central role in establishing an independent nation,” Ms Thorpe said.
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