King Charles confronted by Australian senator in verbal attack – Watch
King Charles was heckled by an Australian senator who told him "You are not my King" and said the royal had "committed genocide against our people".
Following a landmark speech delivered by Charles at Australia's Parliament House in the country's capital Canberra, Senator Lidia Thorp launched a verbal attack, demanding a treaty between Australia's First Nations and its government. Watch the moment in the video below.
"You committed genocide against our people," she shouted. "Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us. Our bones, Our skulls our babies, our people. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty."
As the senator, 51, was ushered away by security guards, she continued to shout: "This is not your land. This is not your land. You are not my King. You are not my King."
The King appeared to take no notice, turning to speak to the prime minister and Camilla. HELLO! understands that the royal couple were "unruffled" by the outburst, which Charles hoped would not overshadow what had been otherwise a "wonderful day".
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The reception began with a welcome procession, with Charles and Camilla's arrival into the Great Hall announced by a didgeridoo.
Senior Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Violet Sheridan formally welcomed Their Majesties, before speeches were given by the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and leader of the opposition Peter Dutton.
In Charles' address, he spoke of his affection for the nation and acknowledged the "timeless wisdom of Indigenous people".
He said: "In my many visits to Australia, I have witnessed the courage and hope that have guided the nation's long and sometimes difficult journey towards reconciliation.
"Throughout my life, Australia's First Nations peoples have done me the great honour of sharing, so generously, their stories and cultures. I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom."
Reflecting on his time spent at Geelong Grammar School, the 75-year-old said: "I had thought that the school I had been attending in Scotland was remote and testing enough, but nothing had quite prepared me for the realities of the bush country."
He continued: "I arrived as an adolescent and left as a more rounded – if not even somewhat chiselled – character once I had contended with brown snakes, leeches, funnel-web spiders and bull ants, and – bearing in mind this was very nearly 60 years ago – been given certain unmentionable parts of a bull calf to eat form a branding fire in outback Queensland."
During Charles and Camilla's tour of Australia, which began on Monday, they have faced low-key protests from supporters of First Nations resistance to colonisation.
Ahead of the reception, Senator Lidia, who sits as an independent in the upper house of the Australian parliament, warned of her outburst, saying: "I'm going to tell him he’s not my King. He’s not our King.
"All of the wealth that he has created for his family has been stolen. He should apologise for taking our land. We need a peace treaty," she said.
