<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>331514</docID> <postdate>2024-10-22 10:19:44</postdate> <headline>‘I wanted the world to know’: Lidia Thorpe on tirade</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-331541" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241021192203258426-original-resized-1-e1729553033716.jpg" alt="" width="862" height="574" /></p> <caption>The federal opposition is considering raising a censure motion against Senator Lidia Thorpe. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><strong>Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe has justified her roundly criticised protest action against King Charles, saying she had written to the monarch multiple times and he ignored her.</strong></p> <p>The independent from Victoria confronted the King and Queen Camilla during a welcome reception at Parliament House on Monday, before being kicked out.</p> <p>"You are not our king. You are not sovereign," she shouted.</p> <p>"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.</p> <p>"You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want treaty."</p> <p>Speaking on Tuesday, Senator Thorpe said her repeated written requests for a meeting and a "respectful conversation" with the monarch had been ignored every time.</p> <p>"That wasn't afforded to me, so I did that for my people. I did that for my grandmother, and I wanted the world to know that we need a treaty here and we want an end to this ongoing war against first peoples in this country," she told ABC radio.</p> <p>"I don't subscribe to assimilating myself into the colonial structure."</p> <p>Senator Thorpe doubled down on her accusation the King was complicit in the genocide of indigenous people by remaining silent.</p> <p>"Why doesn't he say, I am sorry for the many, many thousands of massacres that happened in this country and that my ancestors and my kingdom are responsible for that," she said.</p> <p>Asked about her affirmation of allegiance to the crown when she was sworn in as a parliamentarian, Senator Thorpe said she did that under duress and to fulfil her duties.</p> <p>Senator Thorpe demanded the UK hand back indigenous artefacts and remains that had been taken.</p> <p>King Charles spoke quietly with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese while they sat on a podium in the Great Hall, as security officers stopped Senator Thorpe from approaching further and escorted her from the room.</p> <p>Senator Thorpe, who was a guest at the event, was criticised by other guests at the reception including former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott and Victoria Cross recipient Keith Payne.</p> <p>Opposition Leader Peter Dutton labelled the senator's protest an act of "self-promotion" and said she should consider resigning.</p> <p>"People need to express themselves respectfully and sometimes people make it all about themselves and I think that's what yesterday was," he told the ABC.</p> <p>Labor minister Amanda Rishworth said Senator Thorpe's actions were "pretty disrespectful and not just to the King, but to the many great Australians that had gathered in the Great Hall".</p> <p>NSW Premier Chris Minns, who will on Tuesday host a community barbecue for the royal couple, said Senator Thorpe's protest was "grossly disrespectful".</p> <p>"Everything that particular senator does seems to revolve around herself, as if she's attempting to make herself, that senator, the focus of all attention," he told Sydney's 2GB radio.</p> <p>The coalition is considering raising a censure motion against Senator Thorpe in the upper house when it next sits in November.</p> </body>