The fallout from Lidia Thorpe’s protests at a royal reception in Canberra’s Parliament House on Monday is continuing with the independent senator caught in a heated exchange on UK TV over her actions.
As King Charles and Queen Camilla were joined by federal and state MPs, eminent Australians and representatives from the King’s charities in the Great Hall at Parliament House, Thorpe began shouting at the pair.
“You are not our king. You are not sovereign. You are not our king. You are not sovereign,” Thrope yelled, as security rushed to move her out of the reception.
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“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. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty.”
Appearing on British Sky News soon afterwards, Thorpe was quizzed by no-nonsense host Kay Burley who asked why she had accused the King of “genocide” during her protest.
“Global truth-telling about the royals who caused so much devastation to not only our people in this country but Indigenous people around the world,” Thorpe said.
“We don’t have a treaty in this country, we’ve been calling for decades and decades for a treaty. We just want peace.
“We have our bones and our skulls still in his possession or his family’s possession,” she continued.
“We want that back, we want our land back and we want the King to take some leadership and sit at the table and discuss a treaty with us because a treaty is what will bring us peace.”
Burley pressed harder: “He recognised grievances in his speech, and you interrupted him and called him genocidal. Why is this the best way to deal with this?”
Thorpe denied she interrupted his speech, saying she respectfully waited until it had ended. The TV presenter cut Thorpe’s microphone, only to ask again why she called King Charles “genocidal.”
“There’s thousands of massacre sites in this country from invasion and someone needs to answer for that and he is the successor (to the Crown) and he needs to answer,” Thorpe said.
Burley replied: “One of your colleagues described you as abusing your position and your intervention was disgraceful, how do you respond to that?.”
“I will continue to fight for justice for my people, we are the real sovereigns in this country. The King is not our sovereign, the King lives in your country, he’s from your country — he can’t be our King,” Thorpe said.
Thorpe said she was being portrayed as an “angry black woman”, adding: “Well yeah I’m angry. I’m angry because I see too many of our people dying, too many people incarcerated.
“We don’t have any land, your King and his previous kings and queens stole that from us, and we want it back and we won’t stop resisting.”
Thorpe then ended the interview.
Thorpe has faced a number of calls for her to resign following her protest on Monday, including Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
Dutton told Nat Barr on Sunrise: “There is a strong argument (for it) … someone who doesn’t believe in the system but takes a quarter of a million dollars ($250,000 salary) a year from the system should resign.
“It was entirely predictable. All about herself. It doesn’t advance any cause she’s interested in. We shouldn’t give it any attention. It overshadowed what’s been a very successful visit so far.
“I think it was disrespectful, and most Australians dismiss it on that basis.”