On October 21, 2024, King Charles III began the second stage of his trip to Australia. After Sydney, the sovereign returned to the capital, Canberra. The Australian king’s speech to parliament was the most anticipated political moment of the trip. An indigenous senator emerged from her ranks in traditional dress, shouting threats and insults against King Charles III. The senator was evacuated from the premises, causing an embarrassing moment of hesitation during this visit.
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King Charles III addresses the Australian Parliament during his visit to Canberra
King Charles III arrived in Sydney last Friday, accompanied by Queen Camilla. This Monday, October 21, 2024, King Charles III joined the capital, Canberra, a city of less than half a million inhabitants where the country’s federal institutions are located. The King and Queen were greeted as they exited their plane by “Auntie” Serena Williams, an elder of the Ngunnawal people, who performed the traditional smoke welcome ceremony.
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King Charles III and Queen Camilla made several visits to Canberra, as well as a tribute ceremony at the foot of the Australian War Memorial. The most significant and anticipated event of the day took place in the Australian Parliament. King Charles III is the head of state of 15 countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia. His trip is exceptional since he is only the second monarch to set foot on Australian soil, after his mother.
His passage in the Australian parliament is also important since the sovereign is symbolically the third element which constitutes the legislative power of the country with the Senate and the House of Representatives. Some hoped that King Charles III would take advantage of this trip to deliver a strong speech, in a country with republican overtones. In 1999, Australians voted 54% in a referendum to maintain the monarchy. King Charles recently reiterated that it was entirely up to Australians to decide on the regime of their country. Just like Elizabeth II before him, Charles advocates the self-determination of peoples and will accept the democratic choice of Australians.
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King Charles III evokes the “ nation’s journey towards reconciliation » without dwelling on the trafficking of Aborigines
The animosity of representatives of indigenous peoples towards the descendants of Europeans is one of the reasons which push some Australians to want to dethrone King Charles. In his speech delivered this Monday to senators and deputies, Charles III quickly mentioned indigenous peoples, without issuing a real apology for past actions, contrary to what some hoped.
“Let me also say how much I enjoyed this morning’s moving Welcome to Country ceremony, which provides me with the opportunity to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land”declared the King. “During my many visits to Australia, I have witnessed the courage and hope that guided the nation’s long and sometimes difficult journey towards reconciliation”continued the sovereign. These are the only mentions that King Charles will make regarding the natives.
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A senator attacks the king of Australia and is forcibly evacuated
After her speech, during the national anthem, Senator Lidia Thorpe burst in in traditional dress and made threats against the sovereign. Lidia Thorpe is Victoria’s first Indigenous senator. She was elected under the label of the ecological party in 2020, then she was dismissed from the party due to disagreements on colonial subjects. She now sits without a label. She stood out when she refused to take her oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II, whom she described as a “colonizer”.
The senator advanced angrily towards the sovereign, although a comfortable distance separated her from the King. “You committed genocide against our people”she shouted. “Give us back our land. » Lidia Thorpe continued to insult the King and the British, described as “fucking colony.” “Give us what you stole from us. Our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You have destroyed our land. Give us our treaties. We want a treaty in this country. You are a genocidaire. This is not your land, this is not your land. » Security intervened and evacuated the senator who continued to shout that King Charles III was not her King.
The First Nations representative had already tried to burst into the tribute ceremony at the Australian War Memorial earlier in the day, as shown in videos posted on social networks. We see the senator talking with police officers who are trying to prevent her from approaching. Senator Lidia Thorpe also issued a statement in the wake of these events, detailing the reasons for her action. She requests the writing of a treaty which must be concluded with the Aborigines. It also demands that colonial questions be judged as quickly as possible, even before modifying the constitution and before becoming a republic. What she wants later. She fears that the establishment of a republic will be an opportunity to turn the page too quickly on the past, since it would be too simple to associate colonial actions with the British Empire and the monarchy.
“As First Nations, we have never ceded our sovereignty over this territory. The Crown invaded this country, failed to seek a treaty with the First Nations, and committed genocide against our people. King Charles is not the rightful ruler of these lands”writes Lidia Thorpe in her press release. The British arrived on the shores of Sydney in 1788 to establish a penal colony, considering the vast Australian territory as no man’s landor an uninhabited land.
Nicolas Fontaine
Editor-in-chief
Nicolas Fontaine has been a designer-editor and author for numerous Belgian and French brands and media. A specialist in royal family news, Nicolas founded the site Histoires royales of which he is the editor-in-chief. [email protected]
