Indigenous senator shouts at King Charles during Australia trip

CANBERRA, Australia – An Indigenous senator told King Charles III that Australia is not his country as the British royal visited the Australian Parliament on Monday.

Senator Lidia Thorpe was escorted out of a parliamentary reception for the royal couple after shouting that British colonizers had stolen indigenous people's land and bones.

“You have committed genocide against our people,” she shouted. “Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. They have destroyed our country. Give us a contract. We want a contract.”

No treaty was ever concluded between British colonizers and the indigenous peoples of Australia.

Charles spoke quietly to Albanese as security guards prevented Thorpe from approaching.

“This is not your country. “You are not my king,” Thorpe shouted as she was led out of the hall.

Thorpe is known for its high-profile protests. When she was confirmed as a senator in 2022, she was not allowed to refer to the then-monarch as “the colonizing Queen Elizabeth II.” Last year she briefly blocked a police car in Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Madri Gras by lying on the road in front of it. Last year she was also banned for life from a Melbourne strip club after a video emerged of her abusing male patrons.

Albanese, who wants the country to become a republic with an Australian head of state, referred indirectly to the issue in his speech welcoming the monarch.

“You have shown great respect for Australians, even at a time when we have debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the Crown,” Mr Albanese said. But, he said, “nothing stands still.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who wants to keep Britain's king as Australia's monarch, said many republic supporters would be honored to attend a reception for Charles and Queen Camilla at Parliament House in the capital Canberra.

“People got their hair cut, their shoes shined, their suits ironed, and that’s just the Republicans,” Dutton quipped.

But the government of Australia's six states signaled their support for an Australian head of state by declining invitations to the reception. They all said they had more pressing appointments on Monday, but the monarchists agreed the royals had been snubbed.

Charles used the beginning of his speech to thank Canberra's Indigenous elder, Aunty Violet Sheridan, for her traditional welcome to the King and Queen.

“Let me also say how much I appreciated the moving Welcome to Country ceremony this morning, which gave me the opportunity to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal People and all First Nations peoples who have loved us and cared for this continent for 65,000 years,” said Charles.

“Throughout my life, Australia's indigenous people have given me the great honor of sharing their stories and cultures so generously. “I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by this traditional wisdom,” Charles added.

Australians voted in a 1999 referendum to keep Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. This result is generally seen as a result of disagreement over how a president would be elected, rather than as a result of majority support for a monarch.

Albanese has ruled out holding another referendum on the issue during his current three-year government. But there is a possibility if his centre-left Labor party is re-elected in elections next May.

Charles was drawn into the Australian Republic debate months before his visit.

The Australian Republic Movement, which wants Australia to break its constitutional ties with Britain, wrote to Charles in December last year calling for a meeting in Australia and for the king to champion their cause. Buckingham Palace politely wrote in March that the king's meetings were decided by the Australian government. A meeting with the ARM is not in the official travel plan.

“Whether Australia becomes a republic is for the Australian public to decide,” Buckingham Palace’s letter said.

Earlier on Monday, Charles and Camilla laid wreaths at the Australian War Memorial and then shook hands with well-wishers on the second full day of their visit.

The memorial estimated 4,000 people came to see the couple.

Charles, 75, is being treated for cancer, which has resulted in an abbreviated treatment schedule. It is Charles' 17th trip to Australia and the first since he became king in 2022. It is the first visit by a reigning British monarch to Australia since his late mother Queen Elizabeth II traveled to the distant country in 2011.

Charles and Camilla rested a day after arriving late Friday before making their first public appearance of the trip at a church service in Sydney on Sunday. They then flew to Canberra, where they visited the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier and a reception at Parliament House.

Before leaving the war memorial, they stopped to greet hundreds of people who gathered under clear skies under Australian flags. The temperature should reach a mild high of 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit).

On Wednesday Charles will travel to Samoa where he will open the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.