Key Points
- Independent senator Lidia Thorpe interrupted the royal couple’s parliamentary reception.
- Thorpe accused him of committing genocide and said he was not her king.
- Security staff later led Thorpe away.
King Charles III was met with a defiant protest by independent senator Lidia Thorpe, who interrupted the royal couple’s parliamentary reception, yelling: “You are not my King.”
Senator Thorpe strode up the central aisle of the Great Hall of Parliament House after the king’s address to tell him she did not accept his sovereignty. “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; you destroyed our land, give us a treaty, we want a treaty in this country,” she shouted.
Charles turned to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and talked quietly on the podium of the Great Hall as security staff moved to prevent Thorpe from approaching the monarch. Thorpe continued to yell as she was led away, saying: “This is not your land, you are not my king.”
As security staff escorted Thorpe out, the royal couple prepared to talk to some of those in attendance.
Guests react to outburst
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 after the event.
Another of the guests, Victoria Cross recipient Keith Payne, was highly critical of Thorpe for disrupting the reception, saying it was “un-Australian” and that he was “amazed that she got through the door”.
However, as an elected senator for Victoria, she was an invited guest at the event. 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.
Thorpe’s previous royal protests
Thorpe made international headlines for a defiant gesture made when she was sworn into Parliament in 2022. During the swearing-in ceremony, Thorpe approached the dispatch box with her fist raised in a symbolic gesture of Blak resistance. When asked to declare her allegiance to the monarch, Thorpe inserted the word ‘colonising’ before Queen Elizabeth II’s title.
Royal reception
Several hundred people were in the Great Hall of Parliament House to welcome Charles and Queen Camilla to a parliamentary reception hosted by Albanese and his partner, Jodie Haydon.
The royal couple entered the hall after signing the Parliament House visitor book in the Marble Foyer and walked in to the sounds of a didgeridoo played by Bevan Smith, a local Indigenous man. They were joined by federal and state members of parliament, eminent Australians and representatives from the King’s charities who assembled for the first event of its kind since Queen Elizabeth II attended a parliamentary reception in the Great Hall in 2011. The king and Albanese led the official party into the hall, while the queen was accompanied by Haydon.
A senior Ngunnawal elder, Aunty Violet, greeted their majesties and guests with a Welcome to Country.
Those attending the reception included former prime minister John Howard, former prime minister Tony Abbott, former deputy prime minister Julie Bishop, horse trainer Gai Waterhouse, mining executive Andrew Forrest, Linfox founder Lindsay Fox, and Olympic kayaker and gold medallist Jess Fox. The two Australians of the Year, Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer, also attended.
In remarks that were televised live, the king paid tribute to the progress Australia had made since his first visit to the country in 1966. The royal couple walked to the forecourt of Parliament House to greet members of the public before proceeding to other events. The King and Queen have been in Australia since Friday. Their five-day visit is ahead of their attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa.
By Aleisha Orr of NITV