‘You Are Not Our King,’ Australian Lawmaker Shouts at King Charles in Shocking Moment During Royal Tour

King Charles, who is visiting Australia with Queen Camilla, had just made a speech to the Parliament in Canberra when the incident occurred

King Charles faced shouts of “You are not my King, this is not your land" from a lawmaker in Australia during his official visit.

Charles, 75, had just sat down after making his speech to the Australian Parliament in Canberra on Monday Oct. 21, when a senator was heard calling from the back of the chamber.

Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal Australian politician, first made claims of “genocide.” She then said, “Give us what you stole from us: our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” videos from the event shared by U.K. newspaper The Telegraph showed.

“You destroyed our land, give us a treaty — we want a treaty, we want a treaty with this country.”

Then, as she was being escorted out of the Great Hall of Parliament House, she kept calling out, “This is not your land, This is not your land. You are not my King, you are not our King.”

Thorpe is a longtime campaigner for a treaty between Australia and its first inhabitants, the BBC reported.

Charles was reported to be unruffled by the protest and Buckingham Palace spokespeople had no comment on the protest.

King Charles is heckled by Australian politician Senator Lidia Thorpe shouting before she was escorted away by security King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend Australian Parliament House for Ceremonial Welcome and Parliamentary Reception
Politician Lidia Thorpe; King Charles.

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But a palace source pointed to the crowds who greeted them, saying the couple was “deeply grateful to the very many thousands who 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.”

In his speech made minutes before the interruption, Charles had praised the First Nations people, thanked them for their welcome and paid respects to “the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet,” The Telegraph reported.

Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe disrupts proceedings as Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend a Parliamentary reception at Parliament House in Canberra
Lidia Thorpe at the Parliament building in Canberra on Oct. 21, 2024.

Lukas Coch-Pool/Getty

“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," he said.

The protest came as observers have been focusing on what reaction there will be in Australia to seeing the country's head of state — a position he inherited after the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth on Sept. 8, 2022.

King Charles III delivers a speech while attending a Parliamentary reception hosted by Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon on October 21, 2024 in Canberra, Australia
King Charles delivering his speech to Parliament in Canberra on Oct. 21, 2024.

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A republican movement has reportedly asked to meet the King during the visit. Charles has reaffirmed the longstanding position of the monarchy, reinforcing that he is relaxed about any change in status and constitution. It is up to the people of any of the states that have him as King to make that decision, his aides have said.

Queen Camilla and King Charles III attend the ceremonial welcome and Parliamentary reception at the Australian Parliament House on October 21, 2024, in Canberra, Australia
Queen Camilla and King Charles at the ceremonial welcome at Australia's Parliament House, Canberra, on Oct. 21, 2024.

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The Australian Republic Movement (ARM) was told in a letter from Charles' assistant private secretary that “whether Australia becomes a republic is ... a matter for the Australian public to decide.”

In fact, a recent poll shows support for a republic has waned. A Sydney Sunday Telegraph poll, quoted in The Times on Oct. 13, found that those favoring a republic was now at 33%, down from the 39.4% figure at the last referendum on the issue in 1999.

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King Charles is heckled by Australian politician Senator Lidia Thorpe shouting before she was escorted away by security King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend Australian Parliament House for Ceremonial Welcome and Parliamentary Receptio
Senator Lidia Thorpe being ushered out of the assembly on Oct. 21, 2024.

Victoria Jones/Shutterstock

Ahead of the disruption in Parliament, Charles and Queen Camilla, 77, had been welcomed to the Parliament building with the sounds of a didgeridoo.

It came on the fourth day of the couple's visit to Australia. Earlier they had paid tribute at the Australian War Memorial – and even met an alpaca which was wearing a crown that had been brought along by a member of the crowd. Charles stopped to tickle the animal's nose as he greeted it among the waiting crowds.

The King, a longtime campaigner on climate change, also visited CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, to talk to firefighters about combating the bush fires which devastate millions of hectares of Australian land each year.

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