A STATUE of Queen Victoria in Sydney was defaced with red paint just a few hours before King Charles’s scheduled visit to the city.
The statue of the monarch sits outside the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney’s central business district and installed in the 1980s.
Police arrived at around 5.30am after receiving reports of the statue being vandalised.
Photographs show the plinth of the bronze statue covered with streaks of red paint.
New South Wales confirmed that an investigation into the incident was underway.
The vandalism comes amid King Charles’s already fractious tour of the country, his first since becoming King.
Thorpe, who is the state of Victoria’s first indigenous senator, was ushered from the hall while shouting: “You are not our king, you are not sovereign … you have committed genocide against our people.”
Wharton told reporters that he wanted to give King Charles an International Criminal Court notice for genocidal crimes.
However, after shouting at a crowd who had gathered to greet the King, police escorted Wharton away from the area.
“This is resistance,” he said.
“I tried to explain to the authorities, I was trying to serve a document on the king of England.
“All the advantage, all the wealth … is through the direct results of massacres, wars and genocide of First Nations people.”
King Charles met with members of the indigenous community in Sydney on Tuesday.
Some indigenous activists had been hoping for an apology from King Charles for the monarchy’s historical role in colonialism during the visit.
Yet while King Charles offered his respects “to the traditional owners of the land on which we meet”, he stopped short of apologising on behalf of the royal family.
