Australian Senator Thorpe faces flak for showing ‘utter disrespect’ to King Charles amid cancer treatment: ‘Disgusting’
King Charles arrived at the Australian Parliament to deliver a speech, but was berated by a senator, who told him, “You are not my King, you are not sovereign.”
King Charles on Monday arrived at the Australian Parliament to deliver a speech as he met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other leaders of the nation. However, the British monarch was berated by an Australian senator, who told him, “You are not my King, you are not sovereign… you have committed genocide against our people.”
Charles gave a historic address at Australia's Parliament House in Canberra, where he was pictured along with Queen Camilla. Just before the conclusion of his speech, Senator Lidia Thorpe targeted him verbally assault and accused him of committing “genocide” against the indigenous people of the Commonwealth nation.
Security guards stepped in to escort the royal pair as as Thorpe yelled at them from the rear of the room, “Give us our land back, give us what you stole. Our babies, our people. You destroyed our land.” The lawmaker sought a treaty between the government and Australia's First Nations.
Thorpe, a DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman, has previously expressed her strong disapproval of the British monarchy and has long advocated for a treaty.
During their trip of Australia, Charles and Camilla have encountered peaceful protests from proponents of First Nations resistance to colonisation. They were seen holding a banner that reads “decolonize” at various engagements.
King Charles addresses Australian Parliament, welcomed with traditional Aboriginal ceremony
King Charles addressed the First Nations people of Australia during his speech.
“Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations people have done me the great honor of sharing so generously their stories and cultures,” he remarked.
“I can only say how much such traditional wisdom has shaped and strengthened my own experience.”
Earlier, the royal couple was welcomed with a grand traditional Aboriginal ceremony outside Parliament House.
Indigenous people were massacred in hundreds of locations around Australia after British settlers arrived, and this continued until the 1930s. Their forebears continue to face prejudice and institutionalized discrimination in a society that has not been able to overcome generations of disadvantage.
Lidia Thorpe's action garners mixed reaction
Meanwhile, several current and former senators expressed disappointment over Thorpe's actions, with one writing, “To show such utter disrespect to King Charles, who has traveled to Australia, despite ongoing cancer treatment, is disgusting.”
However, some netizens on X lauded her for “very much representing the strong feeling of indigenous Australians.”
