Australian lawmakers have voted to censure an Aboriginal senator who heckled King Charles during his visit to Canberra last month, to express their “profound disapproval” of her protest.
Lidia Thorpe shouted “you are not my King” and “this is not your land” shortly after the King addressed the Great Hall of Parliament, in an effort to highlight the impacts of British colonisation.
The Senate’s censure, which passed 46-12, described Thorpe’s actions as “disrespectful and disruptive” and said they should disqualify her from representing the chamber as a member of any delegation.
A censure motion is politically symbolic but carries no constitutional or legal weight.
Shortly after the Senate vote on Monday, Thorpe told reporters she had been denied her right to respond in the chamber due to a flight delay.
“The British Crown committed heinous crimes against the first peoples of this country… I will not be silent,” the independent senator said.
Her protest last month drew immediate ire from across the political aisle, as well as from some prominent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders.
But it also drew praise from some activists who argued that it highlighted the plight of Australia’s first inhabitants, who endured colonial violence and still face acute disadvantages in terms of health, wealth, education, and life expectancy compared to non-Indigenous Australians.
Thorpe is among those who have advocated for a treaty between Australia’s government and its first inhabitants.
Unlike New Zealand and other former British colonies, a treaty with Indigenous peoples in Australia was never established. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people emphasise that they never ceded their sovereignty or land to the Crown.
Despite the protest, the King was warmly greeted by Australian crowds during his five-day tour alongside Queen Camilla.
Credit: bbc.com
