CANBERRA – Australian senators on Monday voted to censure an Indigenous colleague who yelled at King Charles III during a reception in Parliament House last month.
The censure of independent Sen. Lidia Thorpe is a symbolic gesture that records her colleagues’ disapproval of her conduct during the first visit to Australia by a British monarch in 13 years.
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The motion was carried 46 votes to 12.
Government leader in the Senate Penny Wong said Thorpe’s outburst sought to “incite outrage and grievance.”
“This is part of a trend that we do see internationally which, quite frankly, we do not need here in Australia,” Wong told the Senate.
Thorpe launched an expletive-laden rant at Charles following his speech during his visit to Canberra and Sydney.
“You are not our king. You are not sovereign,” Thorpe yelled at Charles as she was led by security guards from the reception.
“You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us: our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” she added.
Following her censure, Thorpe said she would repeat her rant if Charles returned.
“If the colonizing king were to come to my country again, our country, then I’ll do it again,” Thorpe told reporters.
“And I will keep doing it. I will resist colonization in this country. I swear my allegiance to the real sovereigns of these lands; First Peoples are the real sovereigns. You don’t have some random king rock up and say he’s sovereign,” she added.
Sen. Mehreen Faruqi, a member of the minor Greens party, opposed the censure motion.
“The bubble of white privilege that encapsulates this parliament is a systemic issue,” Faruqi said. “That’s why we are here today, debating a Black senator being censured for telling the truth of the British crown’s genocide on First Nations people and telling it the way she wants to."
The vote took place before Thorpe arrived on a flight from Melbourne. Thorpe said she had wanted to be in Parliament for the vote but government senators refused to wait.
Indigenous people account for fewer than 4% of Australia's population and are the nation's most disadvantaged ethnic group.