THE senator who interrupted King Charles’s speech in the Australian Parliament House has defended her actions, accusing the monarch of “stealing” land from indigenous people.
On Monday, Australia’s first indigenous senator for the state of Victoria, Lidia Thorpe, berated King Charles near the end of his speech in Canberra.
“You are not our king, you are not sovereign,” she said as security removed her from the venue.
“You have committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us.
“Our babies, our people. You destroyed our land.”
NEW: This is the moment King Charles's speech in Australia's Parliament House was interrupted by Senator Lidia Thorpe, who told him: 'You are not my King' 🗣 'You have committed genocide against our people.' pic.twitter.com/KkExsbCGTb
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Last year, Australians voted no in a historic referendum on a plan to amend the constitution to recognise First Nations people and create a body which would allow them to advise the Australian government.
Thorpe opposed the so-called Voice to Parliament plan and instead called for a legally binding treaty between First Nations people and the Australian government.
Speaking to Sky News, Thorpe said she had interrupted Charles’s speech in a bid to draw attention to the plight of indigenous people in the country.
“I did it for truth telling,” she said.
“Global truth telling about the royals who cause so much devastation to not only our people in this country but indigenous people around the world.
“We don’t have a treaty in this country, we’ve been calling for decades and decades for a treaty.
“Our jails are full of aboriginal people. We have 23,000 aboriginal children that have been taken from their families.
“We have over 600 deaths in custody where no one has ever been held accountable.
“We have our bones and our skulls still in his [King Charles] possession, or his family’s possession.
“We want that back, we want that land back and we want your King to take some leadership and sit at the table and discuss a treaty with us.”
Sky News presenter Kay Burley then asked Thorpe why she had called King Charles “genocidal”.
Thorpe said: “There’s thousands of massacre sites in this country from invasions and someone needs to answer for that.”
Burley replied: “And that’s the King?”
“If he is the successor, then he needs to answer,” said Thorpe.
Burley then raised the comments of another Australian senator, who said Thorpe had abused her position and described her interruption as “disgraceful”.
“I’m not fussed about what people say about me,” said Thorpe.
“I will continue to fight for justice for my people. We are the real sovereigns in this country.
“The King is not our sovereign. The King lives in your country, he’s from your country, he can’t be our King.”
Some indigenous leaders in Australia had hoped that King Charles would offer an apology to them during his speech.
However, while he offered his respects “to the traditional owners of the land on which we meet”, he stopped short of apologising for the royal family's historical role in the colonisation of Australia.
