King Charles and Queen Camilla were visiting Parliament House in Canberra as part of their Australian tour when Senator Lidia Thorpe, an indigenous campaigner, burst into the Great Hall where the monarch had just given a speech and shouted ‘You’re not my King’
An indigenous politician has launched a verbal attack on King Charles and Queen Camilla as they entered Australia’s Parliament, accusing the royals of “committing genocide”.
Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal Australian independent senator for Victoria, approached Charles and Camillla after they took to the stage in front of politicians and digitatories. Dressed in indigenous dress and holding a piece of paper, she approached the stage as dumbfounded MPs and guests stood by, shouting “You are not my King”. Shouting at the King and Queen as royal protection officers attempted to lead her out of the building, Ms Thorpe said: “You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back, give us back what you stole from us. Our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.
A politician launches a furious rant at King Charles and Queen Camilla (
Image:
Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
“You destroyed our lands, give us a treaty, we want a treaty in the country, you are a genocidalist. This is not your land, this is not your land, you are not my King, you are not our King.” She was also heard shouting “not my King” and “f**k the colony” as she was led out.
The King and Queen did not engage as the scene played out, instead turning to people next to them as music was played by an orchestra. She was ushered out of the room after around 30 seconds by security including the King’s protection officers.
In 2022, a month before the late Elizabeth II died, Ms Thorpe called her a ‘coloniser’ while being sworn in to parliament. She was forced to repeat the oath of allegiance for Australian parliamentarians as colleagues shouted: “You’re not a senator if you don’t do it properly.” Ms Thorpe, who last year split from the Green Party and became an independent MP citing the party’s lack of focus for indigenous rights, later called the ceremony “archaic and ridiculous”.
Senator Thorpe before she was ushered out of the room (
Image:
Getty Images)
Afterwards, a planned royal walkabout outside the parliament lasted only a few minutes after the commotion inside the chamber. Dozens of people who had been waiting in the blazing Canberra sunshine since 8am to catch a glimpse of the King and Queen were left devastated after the royals spent less than 10 minutes saying hello to the crowds.
But a palace source denied it had been cut short due to the commotion inside the chamber and said the schedule had been running 15 minutes over.
They said: “Their Majesties were deeply touched by seeing and hearing the very many thousands who’d turned out to support them, and are only sorry they didn’t have a chance to stop and talk to every single one. The warmth and scale of the reception was truly awesome. While they are grateful to all the crowds, Their Majesties particularly enjoyed hearing individual stories of those who’d made such a special effort to be there.” A palace source also said about the protestor that the King was ‘unruffled’ and would “not let it overshadow what has otherwise been a wonderful day”.
Earlier in the day, Senator Thorpe was nearly arrested at an Indigenous protest outside the Australian War Memorial. A group Indigenous protesters were chanting “always was, always will be Aboriginal land” but kept well away from where the King and Queen appeared.
King Charles had been giving a speech at Parliament House in Canberra (
Image:
POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
In a video circulating online, a police officer can be seen holding Senator Thorpe’s red shirt. Senator Thorpe then twists out of the shirt and walks away from the officer, who follows her. She left the protest and could later be seen inside Parliament, waiting for the arrival of the monarchs.
In a statement, the AFP said no arrests had been made from the incident. The Australian Federal Police said: “This morning, police spoke to a protest group near the Australian War Memorial. The group was directed to move on from the area and they complied with that direction. No arrests were made and police consider the matter finalised.”
Former prime minister Tony Abbott, who attended the event, expressed his dismay at the protest. “It’s unfortunate political exhibitionism, that’s all I’d say,” he said aftewards. Another of the guests, Victoria Cross recipient Keith Payne, was highly critical of Ms Thorpe for disrupting the reception. “I was absolutely amazed that she got through the door,” he said. “That was uncalled for and un-Australian.”
Payne, who was awarded the highest military honour for his service in Vietnam, was one of the guests who spoke with the King as the royal couple left the reception. Thorpe was a guest at the event as an elected Victorian Senator. Another guest, businessman Dick Smith, said the disruption was an aspect of Australian democracy. “I think that’s the wonderful part of our democracy — that she’s not going to be put in jail,” he said.
The senator is escorted out of the hall (
Image:
PA)Earlier in the day the King had been welcomed to Canberra by becoming the first British monarch to take part in an indigenous “smoking ceremony”. Charles had envisioned putting Australia’s indigenous communities at the heart of his first royal tour since his cancer diagnosis.
The ceremonies are rituals of welcome and protection, used to ward off bad spirits, cleanse people spiritually, and acknowledge ancestors and the land. The late Queen Elizabeth II witnessed the ceremonies during her own visits to Australia, but King Charles is thought to be the first monarch to actively take part. The monarch will visit National Centre of Indigenous Excellence in Sydney tomorrow. The royals also honoured two First World War Australian veterans from opposite ends of society when they visited the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
After Charles and Camilla left floral tributes in recognition of Australian Defence Force troops who paid the ultimate sacrifice they walked the short distance to the memorial’s roll of honour. A tradition has developed among family members of leaving a poppy against the names of their fallen relatives, listed on long walls in the memorial’s cloisters.
King Charles and Queen Camilla at the Australian War Memorial (
Image:
Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
The King stepped forward to place a poppy alongside the name of Private William Punch an Aboriginal Australian tasked with manual work at the front who died in 1917 after being shot. While the Queen left her flower next to the name of the former Mayor of Auburn, Private William James Johnson, who was aged 44 when he enlisted and was shot and killed at the battle of Pozières.
Inside the memorial’s Hall of Memory, Charles laid a wreath at the foot of the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier alongside a floral posy placed by Camilla. As a bugler played The Last Post, the royals bowed their heads to observe as a minute’s silence was broken by the sound of Reveille.
Since the memorial was built in 1941, almost every royal visit to Australia has featured a formal wreath laying ceremony at the war memorial, built to commemorate the service and sacrifice of Australian Defence Force Veterans. In a separate ceremony, the King and Queen for the first time also marked the sacrifices of Indigenous Veterans at the new For our Country – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Memorial.
The King met an alpaca called Hephner while greeting crowds in Canberra (
Image:
PA)
After leaving the hall, the King and Queen moved into the Commemorative Courtyard to sign the visitors’ book. As Australia’s most visited cultural institution, the memorial attracts millions of visitors each year who come to honour the service of defence force personnel.
Outside as Charles and Camilla were greeted by crowds in the hundreds, the King was left in “disbelief” after an alpaca dressed in a crown and suit with a golden bow tie sneezed on him as he went to say hello. Nine-year-old Hephner spectacularly fluffed his lines when he was introduced to the King outside the Australian War Memorial. When the King stroked his nose the animal left off a loud sneeze – provoking laughter.
Thousands turned out to greet the King and Queen – with fans waving flags and banners. The throng included Robert Fletcher bringing the alpaca – named Hephner as his mother was called Playgirl – on its lead to meet the King dressed in a gold crown and suit complete with a gold bow tie for the event.
Robert, of Goulburn, New South Wales, uses his alpaca as a support animal for charities and nursing homes. He said while waiting for Charles: “My wife found the crown and thought it was fitting. I think he loves his crown very much. He has lots of outfits but it’s a special day so he is in a suit and bow tie as well. Hephner has met a few famous people before but this is the King. He wants to meet the King.
Charles met crowds who gathered outside of the Australian Parliament House (
Image:
PA)
“He doesn’t bite and he doesn’t spit. He’s always on his best behaviour anyway. And he is a pro-monarchy alpaca.”
When Charles came close Robert shook his hand and introduced the King to the animal. But as the King gently patted him within seconds the alpaca let out a loud sneeze. Robert said afterwards: “I got to shake his hand and then Hephner sneezed. The King just looked in disbelief. But it’s just who Hephner is. He is an alpaca after all”.
The royal couple received huge cheers as they walked 200 metres from the Australian War Memorial Council Member and Australian Army Veteran, ‘Aunty’ Lorraine Hatton.
Meanwhile, in his speech at Parliament House, the King spoke of his “life shaping and life affirming” time as a teenager spent at school in Australia. For six months in 1966, Charles was shipped off to Victoria’s remote High Country and experienced the “best part” of his education.
The destination was Timbertop, Geelong Grammar’s year 9 campus where students board together in a program that puts emphasis on outdoor education. Charles told his hosts how he “deeply appreciated” the smoking ceremony at the RAAF’s Defence Establishment Fairburn on his arrival to Canberra.
Charles and Camilla inside Parliament House (
Image:
PA)
Also there in the welcome party was Auntie Serena Williams, an elder from a local indigenous community, who performed a smoking ceremony – an ancient tradition which acknowledges the traditional ownership of the land – and Australia’s Federation Guard then gave a Royal Salute.
He said: “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.
Brits have been told to brace for a -5C icy blast with weather forecasts showing swathes of the country will be blanketed in snow soon.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “really get into it in a big way” when they argue, a Kensington Palace aide has claimed.
