Aboriginal senator Lidia Thorpe received a symbolic sanction on Monday for having strongly questioned King Charles III on colonization during the monarch’s visit to the Australian Parliament at the end of October. Senators voted 46 to 12 in favor of a motion of censure against Lidia Thorpe, deeming her behavior “infamous”, “disruptive and disrespectful”.
The elected representatives of the Upper House of Parliament also considered that it was no longer “appropriate” for her to be a member of any delegation “under this Parliament”. Censorship is a purely symbolic sanction aimed at expressing the dissatisfaction of elected officials regarding the actions of one of their own.
During his six-day tour of the Oceanian country of which he is head of state, King Charles visited Parliament for a speech. At the end, Lidia Thorpe shouted: “Give us back our land, give us back what you stole from us!” During a minute-long diatribe, she also proclaimed: “You are not my king”, denouncing what she called the “genocide” of the Aborigines at the time of European colonization of the Australia.
Lidia Thorpe then turned her back on the monarch and other dignitaries as they stood for the country’s anthem.
Australia was a British colony for more than a century, during which thousands of Aboriginal Australians were killed and entire communities displaced. It gained de facto independence in 1901, but never became a republic. Charles III remains head of state.
In 1999, Australians — narrowly — voted against the end of recognition of Queen Elizabeth II, in the midst of a debate at the time on the method of appointing her replacement.
«[Je me] counterfous” of this censorship, launched Lidia Thorpe, gold chain displaying “Not my king” around her neck, adding that she would surely make “kind wood” with the parliamentary report, according to the Australian media. On the national channel ABCshe said she would “do the same thing again” if the king came back.
“I will resist colonization in this country. I pledge allegiance to the true rulers of these lands: the First Peoples are the true rulers,” she said, referring to Australia’s first inhabitants.
Lidia Thorpe speaks about the history of the country “in the way she wants”, reacted Green senator Mehreen Faruqi, who voted against the sanction imposed on her colleague, an independent elected official.
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