King Charles has been heckled by an Indigenous Australian senator who told him “you are not my King” and “you destroyed our land” after he gave a speech at Parliament House in Canberra.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe strode up the aisle shouting that she did not accept his sovereignty.
“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,” she shouted.
“This is not your land, this is not your land, you are not my King, you are not our King,” she declared just after King Charles had finished speaking.
With Queen Camilla and Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also on the stage in the building’s great hall, she said: “You destroyed our land, give us a treaty – we want a treaty, we want a treaty with this country.”
Security stopped her approaching the King and later escorted her out of the chamber.
King Charles protester Lidia Thorpe, a Victoria Senator interrupts the great hall after speech pic.twitter.com/d02hoKW1rh
— Kate Mansey (@KateMansey) October 21, 2024
Thorpe had been one of roughly 20 people protesting the King’s visit outside the war memorial earlier in the day.
Her comments came after Charles gave a keynote address to MPs and senators at Parliament House.
His visit is his 16th official visit to Australia, where he attended school for six months as a teenager in 1966, and is also his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer in February.
The couple landed in Sydney on Friday and spent the weekend in the city before flying to the capital Canberra on Monday morning. At their visit to the war memorial they also laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier.
Among the thousand plus well-wishers gathered to greet King Charles and Queen Camilla at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on Monday was Hephner, a nine-year old alpaca in a suit with a crown perched atop his fluffy white head.
Hephner, named in honour of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, waited for hours alongside owner Robert Fletcher and long lines of others outside the memorial for the chance to greet the royal couple on their one-day tour of the capital.
“He has many outfits and this is one we’ve saved specifically for today,” said Fletcher. “One king meets another king.”
Hephner’s patience paid off. On a thirty-minute walk to greet the often-cheering crowds, Charles stopped to pat the alpaca, pulling back with a laugh when Hephner snorted in his face.
With agencies
