A royal pain in the House: Senator Lidia Thorpe under fire from Indigenous leaders

Lidia Thorpe’s foul-mouthed protest in front of King Charles and Queen Camilla has reignited Indigenous Australia’s deep post-referendum divisions, with Marcia Langton saying she hopes the royal couple do not judge all Indigenous by her actions.

Independent senator Lidia Thorpe is escorted out of the chamber after interrupting King Charles’s appearance in parliament on Monday. Picture: Reuters

Lidia Thorpe’s foul-mouthed ­protest in front of King Charles and Queen Camilla has reignited ­Indigenous Australia’s deep post-referendum divisions, with Aboriginal leader Marcia Langton saying she hopes the royal couple do not judge all Indigenous Australians by the rogue senator’s ­actions.

As Charles and Camilla sat in the Great Hall for an official welcome by Anthony Albanese and other dignitaries, Senator Thorpe stormed towards the stage and yelled at the monarch “you are not our King”, “ give us treaty” and “f..k the colony.”

The outburst, which led to the upper house independent being dragged away by guards, came just hours after she tussled with a police officer at an anti-monarchy protest and follows months of ­disruptive behaviour from the ­radical senator.

Indigenous leaders – some aligned with Senator Thorpe’s far-left opposition to the voice to parliament proposal and some who argued against her at the referendum – backed Senator Thorpe’s protest on Monday.

After months of accusations that the Prime Minister has left a void in Indigenous policymaking since the failure of the referendum, Aboriginal leaders said Mr Albanese could have avoided disruptions to the royal tour if he had facilitated a discussion between activists and the King.

Professor Langton, a leading Indigenous academic and a co-­architect of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, criticised Senator Thorpe’s confrontation with King Charles as “embarrassing and shameful” and offered an apology to the monarch on behalf of Indigenous Australians.

During her expletive-laden ­tirade at Parliament House, ­Senator Thorpe broke away from the crowd to approach the King after he finished his address at a great hall reception attended by the Prime Minister, MPs, defence officials and dignitaries.

“Give us our land back, give us what you stole from us, our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land,” Senator Thorpe shouted.

“Give us a treaty. We want treaty in this country. It’s not your land, it’s not your land. You are not my king, you are not our king.”

The former Greens senator wore a traditional possum fur cloak and had intermittently turned her back on the proceedings while the Australian and British national anthems were playing. Her outburst interrupted the applause shortly after the King made the closing remarks of a speech that touched on his affection for Australia, his respect for Indigenous people and concerns about climate change. As she was forced out the door by security personnel, Senator Thorpe repeatedly yelled “f..k the colony”.

Professor Langton distanced Indigenous Australia from Senator Thorpe’s latest stunt.

“I do hope that the King and the Queen and others will not feel that this is the view of Indigenous Australians; far from it, the majority of Indigenous Australians, whatever their views on the republic proposal, have had a respectful relationship with the monarchy, including the late Queen and Prince Phillip and other members of the royal family,” she said. “I believe they are owed an apology. I would like to apologise to them. It saddens me that this visit to Australia has been marred in this way.”

Sean Gordon, who led Liberals for Yes during the referendum campaign, said the senator’s protest was the latest example of a performative action that was not backed by realistic solutions.

“Indigenous people put forward a modest proposal of the voice to be enshrined in the Constitution, which failed at the referendum,” he said.

“By not supporting this modest proposal you end up with far left progressive groups putting forward proposals with no substance and no support.”

Monday’s protest was the latest in a long line of stunts by the senator, who has been a divisive figure inside the Indigenous community. Many Indigenous leaders have resented what they see as her focus on performative acts and ­extreme positions over achievable proposals of substance.

Charles sees the funny side as he is greeted by elder Serena Williams in Canberra. Picture: AFP

Senator Thorpe ditched the Greens in part to campaign against the voice and argue that the proposed constitutional recognition did not go far enough, aiding the No campaign in the process. She also described Queen Elizabeth as “the colonising Her Majesty” when being sworn into the Senate in 2022, prompting her to have to retake the oath, and was booed after she laid down in front of a police float at the Sydney Mardi Gras parade last year.

Senator Thorpe’s message did find some support in the Indigenous community. Veteran Tasmanian activist Michael Mansell – who, like Senator Thorpe, was ­opposed to the voice on the grounds he believed it was the wrong model – said the protest was the result of the Albanese government vacating the field in ­Indigenous affairs since the voice defeat.

“The King is not the problem. If the Albanese government had honoured the promise they made about implementing the Uluru Statement – that is, they sat down and started the treaty process, instead of Albanese doing a backflip and just walking away, leaving a vacuum that people like Lidia Thorpe had to fill … there would have been no protests in front of the King,” he said.

“It’s not the King’s fault, it’s Albanese. We don’t have a leader that we can believe.”

Aboriginal human rights ­adviser Hannah McGlade noted that Indigenous people around the world were looking into the potential for reparations. “It is a very real issue, the lack of reparations in relation to how Australia was colonised unlawfully without a treaty, and it’s an issue that has ongoing impacts today,” she said.

A moment of reflection at the Australian War Memorial. Picture: Getty Images

“The British Crown played a real part in this and there are Indigenous peoples globally who are saying that the Crown really should be concerned about the way that their institution has harmed Indigenous peoples.”

Dr McGlade said the Albanese government should have ensured an engagement between senior Indigenous leaders and the King during his visit, which could have allowed for some of those issues at the heart of Senator Thorpe’s protest to have been raised in a more constructive manner.

After the royal couple left Parliament House, Senator Thorpe said she had been attempting to hand King Charles a notice of complicity in genocide under the “Statute of the International Criminal Court 1998”.

The notice calls for King Charles to be “charged and prosecuted” for his role in the “crime of Aboriginal genocide” and “imposing conditions of life to destroy us and causing us serious mental and physical harm contrary to ­Article 5 of the court’s statute”.

“The British Crown committed heinous crimes against the First Peoples of this country,” Senator Thorpe said. “These crimes include war crimes, crimes against humanity and failure to prevent genocide. There has been no justice for these crimes. The Crown must be held accountable.”

The King with Anthony Albanese at parliament. Picture: Getty Images

The Prime Minister said Senator Thorpe’s display was “disrespectful” and fell short of the standard of behaviour for MPs.

“We are honoured to welcome their Majesties and share the joy of so many Australians in having them here,” Mr Albanese said. “The actions of the independent senator in the Great Hall were disrespectful. This is not the standard of behaviour Australians rightly expect of parliamentarians.”

Opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the outburst was an “embarrassing attempt to seek ­attention”, remarking that Senator Thorpe could have elected not to attend the event.

“Her outburst was reflective of the kinds of naive anti-colonial sentiments which dismiss the long standing relationship between the United Kingdom and Australia,” Senator Nampijinpa Price said.

“Further, regardless of Senator Thorpe’s personal feelings about the monarch, His Majesty remains a vital part of Australia’s government.

“As a member of the Australian parliament, it is incumbent on her to show civility and respectful engagement when conducting her Parliamentary duties.

The King meets a toy alpaca. Picture: AFP

“Her position demands a higher standard of behaviour and she should be reprimanded for her failure to uphold that standard.”

Senator Thorpe also tussled with police on Monday morning when the King and Queen visited the Australian War Memorial, an event also attended by anti-monarchy activists. Senator Thorpe slipped out of a red T-shirt with the slogan “Stolen Land, Stolen Lives, Stolen Wealth” to flee after a police officer grabbed hold of her shirt.

A 62-year-old man, identified by Senator Thorpe as Uncle Wayne “Coco” Wharton was arrested and released without charge after he protested against the visit. A 21-year-old woman was also arrested outside the memorial and charged with failing to comply with police directions.

In their one day in the nation’s capital, the King and Queen paid their respects at the pool of reflection at the War Memorial, planted a tree at Government House and visited the Australian National Botanic Gardens after touching down in Canberra on Monday morning.

The King also had separate audiences with Mr Albanese and Peter Dutton and visited the CSIRO’s National Bushfire and Research Laboratory. He also signed two royal warrants granting the Great Seal of Australia with Mr Albanese before ­Governor-General Sam Mostyn.