Australian politician who heckled King Charles defiant after she is censured for her protest
An Australian indigenous politician who heckled King Charles during his visit to the country last month has been censured.
Senator Lidia Thorpe confronted the King during a reception in Parliament House in Canberra in October.
“Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us! Our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” she yelled at the King.
“You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty!”
She added: “You are not our king, you are not sovereign… you have committed genocide against our people.”
Security stopped her getting close and she was ushered out of the chamber.
In a symbolic gesture that reflects the disapproval of her colleagues, she has now been censured in a vote.
The motion was carried by 46 votes to 12.
Penny Wong, government leader in the Senate, said Ms Thorpe’s outburst sought to “incite outrage and grievance”.
She added: “This is part of a trend that we do see internationally which, quite frankly, we do not need here in Australia.”
Ms Thorpe ripped up a printout of the vote and told reporters: “I don’t give a damn about the censure motion… I’m going to use it for kindling. I’m proud I stood up to the king coloniser.”
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It was the first visit to Australia by a British monarch in 13 years.
Ms Thorpe added: “If the colonising king were to come to my country again, our country, then I’ll do it again.
“And I will keep doing it. I will resist colonisation in this country. I swear my allegiance to the real sovereigns of these lands; First Peoples are the real sovereigns. You don’t have some random king rock up and say he’s sovereign.”
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Senator Mehreen Faruqi, a member of the Greens party, opposed the censure motion, saying: “The bubble of white privilege that encapsulates this parliament is a systemic issue.
“That’s why we are here today, debating a black senator being censured for telling the truth of the British Crown’s genocide on First Nations people and telling it the way she wants to.”
The vote took place before Ms Thorpe arrived on a flight from Melbourne. She had said she wanted to be present for it, but government senators refused to wait.
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Indigenous people account for fewer than 4% of Australia’s population and are the nation’s most disadvantaged ethnic group.
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