An Indigenous senator at Australia’s Parliament House on Monday had accused King Charles of “genocide” moments after he delivered a speech in which he paid his “respects to the traditional owners of the lands”.
This is King Charles’ 16th official visit to Australia and his first major foreign trip since he was diagnosed with cancer. He had concluded his speech when independent senator and Indigenous activist Lidia Thorpe shouted that she did not accept Charles’ sovereignty over Australia.
“You committed genocide against our people,” the activist added. “Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want treaty.”
Thorpe, who is notorious for disrupting previous protest events over the colonisation of Australia, was stopped from approaching the king, who spoke quietly to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the podium but otherwise, appeared unfazed. Thorpe was then escorted out of the chamber afterwards.
Meanwhile, Albanese has praised Charles for his long advocacy about the threat of climate change and his speech about the respect Australians had for their monarch.
King Charles’ speech made only a passing reference to the Republican cause, which Albanese and much of his centre-left Labor party support.
Meanwhile, PM Albanese had halted plans for a referendum on turning Australia into a republic after a government-supported referendum to create an Indigenous advisory body was thwarted earlier this year.
The royal couple will continue their visit to Australia in Sydney on Tuesday, before travelling to Samoa for a meeting of countries in the British Commonwealth.
