CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Indigenous senator tells King Charles III that Australia is not his land, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said after the British royal family visited Australia’s parliament on Monday. He said the king was not needed as head of state.
Indigenous independent senator Lydia Thorpe was led away from a parliamentary reception for the royal couple, shouting that British colonizers had stolen Indigenous people’s land and bones.
“You have committed genocide against our people,” she cried. “Give us back what you stole from us, our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land. Make a treaty. We give you a treaty. I want it.”
King Charles spoke quietly with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as security officials blocked Thorpe’s approach.
“This is not your land. You are not my king,” Thorpe cried as he was led out of the hall.
Albanians who want to become a republic with an Australian head of state also told the king it was time to end his role.
“Even as we were debating the future of our constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the Crown, you showed great respect for Australians,” Mr Albanese said. But “nothing stands still,” he said.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who wants to keep the British monarch as Australia’s monarch, said only supporters of the Republic could attend the reception for Prince Charles and Queen Camilla at Parliament House in Canberra. He also said it was an honor.
“People were getting haircuts, people were shining shoes, people were pressing suits, and that's just what Republicans are,” Dutton quipped.
Leaders of Australia’s six state governments highlighted political divisions over their constitutional relationship with Britain by declining an invitation to attend the reception. All six want an Australian citizen to be Australia’s head of state. Both men each said they had more pressing commitments on Monday, but royal supporters agreed the royal family had been ignored.
Prince Charles opened his speech by thanking Canberra Indigenous Elder Auntie Violet Sheridan for her traditional welcome to the King and Queen.
“Also, let me say how deeply I am grateful for this morning’s moving Welcome to Country Ceremony, which honors the Traditional Owners of the lands we meet, the Gunnawal people, and our loved ones. “It gave us an opportunity to pay homage to all the indigenous peoples who have cared for us and cared for this continent for 65,000 years,” Charles said.
“Throughout my life, Australia’s indigenous people have given me the great honor of generously sharing their stories and cultures. All I can say is how much I have been shaped and strengthened by wisdom,” Charles added.
Australians voted in a referendum in 1999 to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. This result is widely thought to be the result of disagreement over how the president should be chosen, rather than majority support for the monarch.
Prime Minister Albanese has ruled out holding another referendum on the issue during his current three-year term in office. However, if his centre-left Labor Party is re-elected in the elections scheduled to take place by May next year, it is possible.
Mr Charles was drawn into Australian republic discussions several months before his visit.
The Australian Republic Movement, which seeks to sever Australia’s constitutional ties with the United Kingdom, wrote to Prime Minister Charles in December last year, calling on the monarch to meet in Australia and champion their cause. Buckingham Palace said in a polite letter in March that the decision to meet with the king would be made by the Australian government. The meeting with ARM is not on the official itinerary.
“Whether Australia becomes a republic…is a matter for the Australian people to decide,” the Buckingham Palace letter said.
Earlier on Monday, Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla laid flowers at the Australian War Memorial and shook hands with well-wishers on their second full day of visit.
It is estimated that 4,000 people gathered at the memorial to see the couple.
Charles, 75, is undergoing treatment for cancer, so his itinerary has been curtailed. This is Prince Charles’ 17th visit to Australia, and his first since becoming King in 2022. It will be the current British monarch’s first visit to Australia since her late mother Queen Elizabeth visited the distant country in 2011.
Charles and Camilla took a day off after arriving late Friday and made their first public appearance during the trip at a church service in Sydney on Sunday. The group then flew to Canberra, where they visited the Tomb of the Australian Unknown Soldier and a reception at Parliament House.
Before leaving the war memorial, they stopped to greet the hundreds of people who had gathered under sunny skies and held Australian flags. Temperatures were expected to reach a high of 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit).
Prime Minister Charles will visit Samoa on Wednesday, where he will hold a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
