Aboriginal lawmaker who heckled King Charles censured

Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe disrupts proceedings as Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend a Parliamentary reception at Parliament House in Canberra on October 21, 2024.  Agence France-Presse

SYDNEY — An Indigenous lawmaker was censured by Australia’s parliament Monday for heckling King Charles about the legacy of European settlement during his October visit to Canberra.

The censure carries no practical punishment but passed the Senate Monday with 46 votes in favor and 12 against.

During the king’s visit to parliament, independent senator Lidia Thorpe screamed: “This is not your land, you are not my king,” decrying what she said was a “genocide” of Indigenous Australians by European settlers.

READ: King Charles heckled by lawmaker at Australian parliament

She had also turned her back on the king as dignitaries stood for the national anthem.

The censure motion condemned Thorpe’s actions as “disruptive and disrespectful”.

Thorpe told national broadcaster ABC she was disappointed with Monday’s outcome, adding that she would “do it again” if the monarch returned.

READ: King Charles sips kava narcotic, to become Samoan ‘high chief’

“I will resist colonization in this country. I swear my allegiance to the real sovereigns of these lands: First Peoples are the real sovereigns,” she said.

A censure motion is a symbolic gesture when parliamentarians are dissatisfied with the behaviour of one of their own.