The King has been berated by an Australian senator who accused him of “genocide” against her nation’s indigenous people and declared: “You are not my king”.
Lidia Thorpe, who campaigns on First Nations issues, disrupted Charles’s welcome to the capital Canberra with her outburst which overshadowed a speech by the King highlighting his debt to the descendants of Australia’s first inhabitants.
Her comments were criticised by Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese, who attended the event, and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who defended the King, describing him as an “incredible ambassador”.
Mr Albanese told The Australian newspaper: “The actions of the independent senator in the Great Hall were disrespectful. This is not the standard of behaviour Australians rightly expect of parliamentarians.”
Charles and Camilla have faced low-key demonstrations during their tour of Australia, which began on Monday, from supporters of First Nations resistance to colonisation, who have been displaying a banner with the word “decolonise” at a number of events.
But the protest from the elected representative is likely to be seen as an embarrassment for Charles, who is making his first visit to Australia as King.
After the King spoke to guests at Parliament House, Ms Thorpe, who wore a possum skin coat and carried a traditional message stick, shouted: “You are not our King, you are not sovereign … 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.”
As she was gently ushered from the building’s hall, she screamed: “Give us a treaty – we want a treaty with this country … This is not your land, this is not your land, you are not my king, you are not our king.”
She said she was prevented from handing the King a “notice of complicity in Aboriginal genocide” according to the Statute of the International Criminal Court 1998.
It is understood the King was unruffled and did not let the outburst overshadow what the royal party viewed as a positive day in the Australian capital.
Sir Keir, speaking during the launch of a major NHS initiative at an east London health facility, said: “Look, I think the King is doing a fantastic job, an incredible ambassador, not just for our country, but across the Commonwealth.”
He said he was looking forward to joining Charles at a Commonwealth summit in Samoa this week, adding: “I think he’s doing a fantastic job, and we should remember in the context of health, that he is out there doing his public service notwithstanding, you know, the health challenges he himself has had – so I think he’s doing a great job.”
Charles and Camilla were earlier welcomed at Canberra airport with a traditional smoking ceremony where guests wafted burning eucalyptus over themselves, chosen for its health benefits in light of the King’s ongoing cancer treatment.
The royal couple commemorated Australia’s war dead at the national memorial, laying floral tributes as hundreds of well-wishers turned out to see the couple – including an alpaca who sneezed in front of the King.
But the protest will make headlines and the senator said later in a statement: “The British Crown committed heinous crimes against the First Peoples of this country.
“These crimes include war crimes, crimes against humanity and failure to prevent genocide. There has been no justice for these crimes. The Crown must be held accountable.”
Nothing stands still
In a statement before her outburst the senator criticised Mr Albanese, claiming his government had backed down on a treaty with Australia’s First Nations.
Mr Albanese has a long-term aim of steering Australia towards a becoming a republic but the plans are on hold after Australians overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give greater political rights to indigenous people in a referendum held last year.
In a speech before Charles’s address, the prime minister said to Charles: “You have shown great respect for Australians even during times when we have debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the crown.
“Nothing stands still.”
The royal family have increasingly been confronted with the issues of colonialism, reparations for slavery and improved rights for indigenous people during visits to Commonwealth countries.
In 2022, the Prince and Princess of Wales’ tour of Jamaica was heavily criticised for images said to smack of “colonialism”, with one picture showing the couple shaking hands with children who had pushed their arms through a link fence.
The visit was a landmark moment for the monarchy when the growing awareness of racial inequality, in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, shifted how tours were viewed.
Charles also spoke about the move towards healing divisions within society in his address: “In my many visits to Australia, I have witnessed the courage and hope that have guided the nation’s long and sometimes difficult journey towards reconciliation.
“Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations peoples have done me the great honour of sharing, so generously, their stories and cultures. I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom.”
