King Charles heckled by Australian senator shouting ‘you are not my king’ during speech to parliament: ‘F–k the colony’
King Charles’ address to the Australian parliament erupted into chaos Monday after a senator shouted “you are not my king” and accused him of “committing genocide against our people.”
The cancer-stricken monarch, 75, is currently Down Under on a five-day tour as part of an official state visit with his wife, Queen Camilla.
It is the king’s first visit to Australia as sovereign.
After wrapping up his speech in the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra on Monday, Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe immediately rushed over to the stage.
“This is not your country,” she yelled at Charles, who sat beside his wife and Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese.
“You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.”
The camera then cut to the royals, who watched Thorpe’s protest without a visible reaction.
“You are not our king, you are not sovereign… You destroyed our land,” she went on, before being stopped from approaching the king.
Thorpe was then escorted out of the hall by security while yelling, “F–k the colony.”
Charles and Camilla have found themselves at the center of various protests during their trip to Australia — a former British colony.
The king acknowledged Indigenous communities during his speech, saying, “Let me also say how deeply I appreciated this morning’s moving ‘Welcome to Country’ ceremony, which offers me the opportunity to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people and all First Nations peoples who have loved and cared for this continent for sixty-five thousand years.”
Australia, where the king still serves as head of state, remains the only Commonwealth country without a treaty with its Indigenous people.
Ahead of Charles’ speech Monday, protestors displayed banners with the word “decolonize” written on them.
The king also attended a ceremonial welcome and parliamentary reception prior to his official address to the government, however six of the country’s State Premiers refused to attend.
The King became Head of the Commonwealth after taking over the throne following the 2022 death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, at age 96.
The countries that make up the Commonwealth represent almost a third of the world’s population. Since 1969, Charles has visited 46 of the 56 Commonwealth countries.
