King Charles protest: Australian Senate censures Indigenous member

Australian politician, Senator Lidia Thorpe heckles King Charles III during the ceremonial welcome and Parliamentary reception at the Australian Parliament House on October 21, 2024, in Canberra, Australia. File
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Australia’s Senate on Monday (November 18, 2024) censured an Indigenous woman parliamentarian over her protest against King Charles during his visit to the parliament last month when she accused the British monarch of genocide.

Independent senator and Indigenous activist Lidia Thorpe shouted that she did not accept Charles’ sovereignty over Australia moments after he delivered a speech in which he paid his “respects to the traditional owners of the lands”.

Both the ruling Labor party and the opposition coalition supported the censure motion, which will not have any legal or constitutional consequences and is only considered a symbolic move by lawmakers when they disagree on a member’s conduct.

Ms. Thorpe’s protest was disruptive and she did not respect the democratic institutions, the motion said.

The British monarch is Australia’s head of state.

‘I’ll do it again’

Ms. Thorpe, a DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman, called the members who supported the motion “hypocrites” and said the censure process was a ploy to divert attention away from the real issues affecting Australia.

“I’ll do it again, and I’ll do it every time,” Ms. Thorpe shouted in parliament when Simon Birmingham, the opposition leader in the Senate, was making his comments on the motion.

“They want me to kneel, to be silent, to disappear, but let me be clear… my loyalty lies with my people, with justice, not with a government or a crown that has systematically worked to erase us,” Ms. Thorpe said.

Ms. Thorpe, who has disrupted previous events protesting over Britain’s colonisation of Australia, had to retake her oath of office in 2022 after she tweaked it to label Queen Elizabeth a coloniser. She was told to recite the affirmation — a form of parliamentary oath that omits a reference to God — as written.

Australia has struggled for decades to reconcile with its Indigenous citizens, who make up 3.8% of the country’s 27 million population, and are, by most socio-economic measures, the most disadvantaged people in the country.

Their ancestors arrived on the continent some 50,000 years before British colonists yet were marginalised during colonial rule and are not mentioned in Australia’s 123-year-old constitution.

The Senate also passed a censure motion against United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet for offensive comments on social media platform X after the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President.