Lidia Thorpe has clashed with British Sky News host Kay Burley, who demanded to know why she accused the King of ‘genocide’ during her outburst at Parliament House.
The independent Victorian senator and outspoken Aboriginal activist made headlines around the world by shouting at King Charles following his speech in Canberra on Monday.
Dressed in a possum-skin pelt, Sen. Thorpe repeatedly told the King ‘you are not my king’, ‘f**k the colony’ and accused him of being a ‘genocidalist’.
Burley initially asked the senator what prompted her outburst.
‘Global truth telling about the Royals who caused so much devastation to not only our people in this country but Indigenous people around the world,’ she said.
‘We don’t have a treaty in this country, we’ve been calling for decades and decades for a treaty. We just want peace.’
Sen. Thorpe said she wanted to see incarceration rates of Aboriginal people drop and demanded those responsible for their deaths in custody be held accountable.
‘We have our bones and our skulls still in his possession or his family’s possession,’ she continued.
Speaking to Sky News presenter Kay Burley on Monday night, the senator said the reason for her outburst was ‘for truth telling’ and to demand a ‘treaty’
‘We want that back, we want our land back and we want the King to take some leadership and sit at the table and discuss a treaty with us because a treaty is what will bring us peace.’
Burley then asked why she interrupted the King and called him a ‘genocidalist’.
‘He recognised grievances in his speech, and you interrupted him and called him a genocidalist. Why is this the best way to deal with this?’
Sen. Thorpe countered by saying she ‘did not once interrupt his speech, I respectfully waited right until the end’.
The TV presenter cut the senator’s microphone off, telling her she only had so much time, before asking again why she had used the term ‘genocidalist’.
‘There’s thousands of massacre sites in this country from invasion and someone needs to answer for that and he is the successor (to the Crown) and he needs to answer,’ Sen. Thorpe said.
Lidia Thorpe shouted at the King following his speech in Canberra on Monday and called out ‘f**k the colony’
The Senator was then asked to comment on criticism she had received over the incident, and replied that she ‘wasn’t fussed’ what others thought.
‘One of your colleagues described you as abusing your position and your intervention was disgraceful, how do you respond to that,’ Burley asked.
‘I will continue to fight for justice for my people, we are the real sovereigns in this country. The King is not our sovereign, the King lives in your country, he’s from your country – he can’t be our King,’ she said.
The senator said she was being portrayed as an ‘angry black woman’.
‘Well yeah I’m angry. I’m angry because I see too many of our people dying, too many people incarcerated,’ she said.
‘We don’t have any land, your King and his previous kings and queens stole that from us and we want it back and we won’t stop resisting.’
Sen. Thorpe then declared the interview over, prompting a laugh from Burley.
‘Thankyou very much for your time, I’m at an event and I must go. I appreciate you taking the time to have me on your program,’ Sen. Thorpe said.
The King and Queen seemed unfazed by the senator’s outburst during Monday’s reception, which quickly wrapped up after Ms Thorpe was dragged away by security.
The 51-year-old then posted a cartoon image on social media which showed Charles beheaded.
Speaking after she was ejected from the chamber, Thorpe said she had intended to hand Charles a ‘notice of complicity in the Genocide of the First Peoples of this county’.
However, she was stopped from doing so by security, who prevented her from getting close to His Majesty.
Sen. Thorpe’s antipathy toward the royal family has been longstanding.
When she was sworn into parliament in 2022 she referred to then sovereign Queen Elizabeth II as a ‘coloniser’ and was rebuked by the Senate president.
