Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe faces angry backlash over ‘rude and disrespectful’ outburst during King Charles’ visit

An Australian politician was slammed as ‘disrespectful and rude’ today after staging a foul-mouthed protest at a royal reception attended by the King and Queen.

Dressed in a native fur coat, Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe, 51, shouted that the monarch had ‘committed genocide against our people’, adding: ‘F*** the colony’.

After speeches in Parliament House by the King, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton, Senator Thorpe walked down the aisle of the Great Hall shouting: ‘You committed genocide against our people.’

The independent senator from Victoria added: ‘Give us our land back. Give us 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.’ 

As security guards began to usher Senator Thorpe away, she became more animated and continued to shout: ‘This is not your land. This is not your land. You are not my King. You are not my King.’

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on Senator Thorpe’s outburst, but sources brushed off the lone protestor, saying Their Majesties were ‘deeply touched’ at the warmth of the welcome they had received throughout the day.

The King and Queen, who were still seated on the stage during the confrontation, appeared to take no notice as the King turned to speak to the prime minister and Camilla turned towards his wife.

They were seen laughing off the politician’s heckling and were said to be ‘unruffled’ by the tirade which they hoped would not overshadow what had been an otherwise ‘wonderful day’.

Reacting to the incident, Aunty Violet Sheridan, a Senior Ngunnawal Elder, spoke of her fury at the outburst, describing it as ‘disrespectful and rude’.

She explained that she had been asked by the Australian Prime Minister and Cabinet Office to give the official ‘Welcome to Country’ at Parliament for the King and Queen and had been ‘honoured to do’.

She was sitting on the stage with them when Senator Thorpe staged her intervention and said: ‘It was fabulous right up until that incident. I thought she was disrespectful and out of line. She does not speak for me or my family.

‘I did the official ‘welcome to country’ in the Great Hall. I was asked by the Prime Minister and Cabinet to come along as I am a senior elder in the Ngunnawal community. These are our ancestral lands. This is my mother’s country.

‘I was on the stage sitting just beyond the Prime Minister and it absolutely frightened the life out of me. I didn’t expect it and I am sure no-one else was expecting it. Someone later told me she did the same at the war memorial earlier.

‘He is a guest of ours and she is a senator, for goodness sake. It was out of place. She hasn’t done it for a little while and I am very disappointed she to chose to do it [again], then. If she did it at the war memorial then why repeat that act again. She’s already the point. 

‘We are all so disappointed by it. To have that in the Great Hall? Disgusting. I am so upset about her. He has waited so long to be King, he has rehearsed for it all his life. He is our King, our sovereign and he has got cancer.

‘I said to my husband ‘I feel so sad for him’. I was sitting tight by him. I am a very spiritual person and I feel really comfortable about him. I just felt it. He is a good man. He thanked me for my welcome. This is sad. He has got cancer and that idiot, I am sorry to say that word, went and did that.

‘I felt so sad that he has travelled all this way. I am a big supporter of reconciliation and the healing process. We need to work this out. I don’t want my grandchildren when Prince George becomes King and comes here and that happens to him. I hope we fix this up before our next generation comes through. Hopefully people see it for what it is. A one-off idiot.’

Asked whether she was a monarchist, Aunty Violet said: ‘ I am sort of in-between on the monarchy. But we had a vote on it and chose to keep it. He is our King. He said even recently it is up to the Australian public – if they want to say yes then he will happily be our King, if they say no he will step aside. He has broad shoulders. It is up to the Australian people.

‘This is not really about him being King. It is a matter of respect for an honoured guest. And what that woman did was disrespectful. That is not the way to solve our differences. This has just given her the oxygen of publicity. This is about respect. Myself and my family, we have respect for our King and our Queen. She is not doing this in our name. ‘

Charles spoke quietly with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as they sat on the podium while security officials stopped Senator Thorpe from approaching any further and escorted her out of the Great Hall.

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.

Another of the guests, Victoria Cross recipient Keith Payne, was highly critical of Thorpe for disrupting the reception. ‘I was absolutely amazed that she got through the door,’ he said. ‘That was uncalled for and un-Australian.’

Mr 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.

Mr Smith has known the King for many years, including a meeting in 1982 when Mr Smith landed his helicopter on the grounds of Balmoral Castle.

Senator Ralph Babet, of the United Australia Party, tweeted: ‘I condemn in the strongest possible terms the actions of Senator Lidia Thorpe today at Parliament House where she hurled verbal abuse at our King.

‘To show such utter disrespect to King Charles, who has traveled to Australia, despite ongoing cancer treatment, is disgusting.

‘Senator Thorpe has disgraced not only herself and the Australian Parliament, but every Australian man, woman and child.

‘Senator Thorpe demanded an apology from King Charles, I’d say it’s King Charles and the Australian people that should be demanding an apology from Senator Thorpe.’

The King was said to be ‘unruffled’ by the incident and would not it it overshadow what had otherwise been a ‘wonderful day’.

‘It’s not every day you get to see an alpaca in a tuxedo,’ a source remarked.

Before the outburst, Thorpe had turned her back as the Australian anthem was played. 

Earlier in the day, Thorpe appeared close to being arrested while protesting the visit of the King and Queen Camilla to Canberra.

A confrontation with police took place at an Indigenous protest outside the Australian War Memorial.

A group of some two dozen Indigenous protesters positioned themselves outside the Memorial, chanting ‘always was, always will be Aboriginal land’.

The group was well away from where the King and Queen appeared.

Senator Thorpe was seen arguing with a police officer who held onto her shirt. She then pulled her shirt off and stormed away from the cop.

‘Everything that we suffer in this country is because of that colonial invasion,’ Senator Thorpe said after the tussle.

The reception in the Australian Parliament had started with a welcome procession, as a didgeridoo announced Their Majesties’ arrival into the Great Hall at Parliament House.

They received a formal Welcome to Ngunnawal Country by senior Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Violet Sheridan.

After speeches from the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and leader of the opposition Peter Dutton, Charles spoke of his affection for Australia.

In an address which lasted a little over ten minutes, the King acknowledged the ‘timeless wisdom of Indigenous people’ and spoke of his formative time at Geelong Grammar School, saying: ‘I had thought that the school I had been attending in Scotland was remote and testing enough, but nothing had quite prepared me for the realities of the bush country’.

The King said: ‘I arrived as an adolescent and left as a more rounded – if not even somewhat chiselled’ – character once I had contended with brown snakes, leeches, funnel-web spiders and bull ants, and – bearing in mind this was very nearly 60 years ago – been given certain unmentionable parts of a bull calf to eat form a branding fire in outback Queensland.’

If was after the King had returned to his seat that Thorpe broke free from the area where she had been standing.

Speaking before the reception, Thorpe had warned of such an outburst saying: ‘I’m going to tell him he’s not my King. He’s not our King.

‘All of the wealth that he has created for his family has been stolen. He should apologise for taking our land. We need a peace treaty.’

Until the protest, the event had been calm and quiet with dignitaries listening in silence to the speeches.

Before the King spoke, the Prime Minister had given a warm address, describing the late Queen as ‘a shining thread through the history of Australia’.

He then told Charles: ‘Since your first visit in 1966, you have been taken into Australian hearts – just as you have taken us into yours. You have known the great natural beauty of this continent in all its challenge and all its reward. You have known the warmth, strength and humour of our people. And what has grown out of your appreciation of all of this is an affection that flows both ways.’

Albanese recalled the King’s Australian ‘educational experiences, ranging from your time at Timbertop to your time at the Countdown studio being interview by Molly Meldrum. Both, in their own ways, deeply formative experiences.’

The leader of the opposition party, Peter Dutton, used his speech to poke fun at the Republican Labor government during the royal visit, joking: ‘People have had hair cuts, people have shined shoes, shirts have been pressed… and that’s just the Republicans!’

Parliament House in Canberra is often described as the heart of Australian democracy and is one of the most open parliament buildings in the world.

Afterwards, the King and Queen walked out into the foyer of the building to huge applause, including school children waving flags. Outside, they took part in a traditional royal ‘walkabout’, now called ‘an opportunity to meet the public’.

Sarah Rimmer, 34, and Nicholas Hicks, 29, now live in Australia but are originally from Southport, UK.

Hicks said: ‘I said thank you for the King for going to Southport after the attack [in July] and he said that he was pleased he could go and that the people there were very resilient.’

Jacqui Stewart, 52, from Brisbane, told the King that she had once had a gin and tonic with him during a parliamentary reception that her husband, who was serving in the military, had been invited to in the mid 1990s.

She said: ‘He had a gin and tonic and it is a very nice memory so I reminded him when we met.’

Before they left Canberra the couple visited The Australian Botanic Gardens on the lower slopes of the Black Mountain in Canberra, which boasts the world’s most comprehensive display of living Australian native plants and is the centre of Australian biodiversity research.

The Queen spoke to a selection of volunteers from the gardens, and to school children about the Banksia species, before having an opportunity to join the children in nature-based educational activities.

‘It’s extraordinary,’ she exclaimed.

Asked how her trip was so far she said: ‘It’s been wonderful. It’s very nice to be here in the gardens and the weather is perfect.’

She and the King then made their way separately to the Rainforest Gully. Charles tripped slightly as he did not see a step leading down to a viewing platform.

‘That was not what I expected,’ he chuckled.

He was then joined by his wife for a photograph before they sweetly walked arm-in arm through the picturesque flora.

Before they left they planted another tree – the king adding the soil and the queen watering it.

Earlier the queen visited GIVIT, a charity which she has been patron of since 2020, which was founded by Juliette Wright who was surprised at how difficult it was to find someone in genuine need of the high-quality baby clothes she no longer required after having her second child.

She found that local charities were overwhelmed with unwanted items poor quality goods but desperately in need of essential items such as sanitary products for women fleeing domestic violence or steel-capped boots for unemployed fathers seeking work.

So she created an online platform which enabled people to donate items direct to the people who need them most: a bike to a single mother who needed to get to work, a microwave to a recently-widowed elderly man.

In 2015 Juliette – who describes the charity as her ‘third baby’, was awarded an Australian local hero in a Canberra awards ceremony.

The charity has proved to be a godsend particularly in times of environmental crisis such as flooding and bushfires.

As Juliette thanked her for her support Camilla said she did what she could from the Uk, saying: ‘It’ a long way away.’

‘We know you have us in your hearts,’ was she told.

‘You are so needed,’ the queen said.

‘I was so pleased to find this. You will just get bigger and bigger, your support is so needed.’

Camilla was told that since she had became patron four years they had seen the number of items they had managed to relocate to those in need soar to 1 million.

‘You have helped put us on the map,’ she was told by a member of staff. ‘We are so grateful to you.’

Yesterday, the King and Queen had enjoyed a warm welcome in Sydney.

Handed armfuls of flowers, toy koalas and even some kangaroo jerky, the couple were repeatedly thanked for making the long journey over, particularly in light of His Majesty’s on-going cancer treatment.

Arriving at St Thomas’ Anglican Church in North Sydney in the morning the royal duo, who enjoyed a down day yesterday after their gruelling flight, were met with loud cheers from the hundreds of well-wishers, drowning out a handful of protestors with a ‘decolonise’ banner calling for indigenous rights and waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags.

A handful of locals shouted ‘get lost’ and ‘get a life’ in frustration, while one man told them: ‘Be thankful you live in a free society where you can argue across the street.’

Fans waiting inside the church grounds – including dozens of Sunday school children – were thrilled to shake hands with the King and Queen, while others described the ongoing republican debate as a ‘bore’.

Afterwards one child delightedly shouted ‘I touched the King!’ ‘It was so good, he was so kind,’ said another little girl.

A Palace source 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.’

The couple went on a planned meet and greet outside the parliament building but it only lasted a few minutes despite the many hundreds who had turned out for a glimpse of them.

Many said they had queued from 8am in blistering heat and some had even flown in from other cities, including Cairns, in order to pay their respects.

Sources said that sadly despite the King and Queen’s best endeavours, not everyone could be greeted in person.

They emphasised the couple were ‘very grateful’ for all the support they had received.

The scale and warmth of welcome from very many thousands at both venues was a truer indicator of the mood of the day than a lone noisy protestor, they said.

Earlier the The King and Queen arrived in Canberra on a Royal Australian Air Force jet to be greeted with a welcome to country and smoking ceremony.

Aunty Serena Williams and Robert Palm officiated over the smoking ceremony on behalf of the Ngunnawal community. The traditional gesture burns native plants.

Palm, 49, lit leaves as part of the traditional ceremony and the King and Queen were encouraged to waft the smoke towards them with their hands.

Palm said: ‘They smiled and said it was really nice. They were wafting the smoke towards them to clear the passage so they can have a good journey in this land. It takes away bad spirits.

‘They will sleep like babies tonight because it has eucalyptus leaves and lemon grass leaf. We knew because of his cancer we wanted to make it really nice and fragrant.’

After being greeted by officials they met school children Ruby, 11 and Loui[corr], 12, pupils from nearby Bonython Primary School, which was opened by the late Queen in 1992.

Loui described the meeting, for which he had been selected at random by his teachers, as a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity.’

They were also greeted by wheelchair-bound Indigo Young, 11 from Cranleigh School.

Thorpe has a history of stunts including slamming the late Queen as a ‘coloniser’ and calling her ‘genocidal’ despite declaring that she was not going to ‘come out ranting and raving’ after the monarch’s death.

She was elected as member of the Greens but quit the party in February last year over disagreements concerning the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Now sitting as an independent, she has been an outspoken critic of the monarchy and Britain’s arrival on the Australian continent in 1788.

In a statement released on Monday, Senator Thorpe said the British Crown and King Charles should be prosecuted for ‘genocide’.

She also said a treaty with Indigenous Australians ‘must be central’ in any move towards a republic.

She said First Nations Australians should play a key role in rewriting the Constitution, and a charter or rights should be established to enshrine the universal declaration of human rights and the United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

‘There’s unfinished business that we need to resolve before this country can become a republic,’ Senator Thorpe said.

‘This must happen through Treaty. We can move towards a Treaty Republic now. The two processes are not opposed, they’re complimentary.’

‘As First Peoples, we never ceded our Sovereignty over this land. The Crown invaded this country, has not sought treaty with First Peoples, and committed a Genocide of our people. King Charles is not the legitimate Sovereign of these lands.’