Australia’s Governor-General Sam Mostyn, center, speaks to Britain’s King Charles III, second from left, and Queen Camilla, second from right, during a tree planting ceremony at Government House in Canberra, Australia, on Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. We do. Photo Credit: AP
An indigenous senator told King Charles III of Australia It’s not their land and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there is no need for a monarch as head of the country as the British royal visited Australia’s parliament on Monday (October 21, 2024).
Indigenous independent senator Lydia Thorpe was thrown out of the royal couple’s parliamentary reception after shouting that British colonialists had taken Indigenous land and bones.
She screamed, “You committed genocide against our people. Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our children, our people. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty.” ”
King Charles spoke quietly with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, while security officials prevented Senator Thorpe from approaching.
“This is not your land. You are not my king,” Ms Thorpe screamed as she was escorted out of the hall.
Mr Albanese, who wants the country to become a republic with an Australian head of state, also told the king it was time for his role to end.
“You have shown great respect for the Australian people, even at a time when we have debated the future of our constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the Crown,” Mr Albanese said. But, he said, “nothing is constant”.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who wants to keep the British monarch as Australia’s monarch, said republican supporters were also honored to attend a reception for King Charles and Queen Camilla at Parliament House in the capital, Canberra.
Mr. Dutton quipped, “People have gotten haircuts, people have had shoes shined, suits have been ironed, and that’s just Republicans.”
The leaders of Australia’s six state governments underlined political divisions over the country’s constitutional relationship with Britain by declining an invitation to attend the reception. All six would like an Australian citizen to be Australia’s head of state.
Each of them said they had more important engagements on Monday, but monarchists agreed that the royals had been neglected.
King Charles began his speech by thanking Aunty Violet Sheridan, a Canberra Indigenous elder, for the traditional welcome to the King and Queen.
“Let me also say how deeply I appreciated this morning’s poignant Welcome to Country ceremony, which allowed me to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people and all First Nations peoples. who have loved and cared for this continent for 65,000 years,” King Charles said.
“Throughout my life, the First Nations peoples of Australia have given me the great honor of sharing their stories and cultures so generously. I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom,” said King Charles.
Australians decided to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state in a referendum in 1999. That outcome is widely believed to be the result of disagreement over how the president would be chosen rather than majority support for a monarch.
Mister. Albanese has ruled out holding another referendum on the subject during his current three-year term in government. But that is likely if his centre-left Labor Party is re-elected in elections next May.
King Charles had become involved in Australia’s republic debate months before his visit.
The Australian Republic Movement, which wants Australia to sever its constitutional ties with Britain, wrote to King Charles in December last year urging him to hold a meeting in Australia and plead their cause to the king.
Buckingham Palace politely wrote in March to say the king’s meetings would be decided by the Australian government. The meeting with the ARM does not appear in the official itinerary.
“Whether Australia becomes a republic is a matter for the Australian public to decide,” the letter from Buckingham Palace said.
Earlier on Monday, King Charles and Queen Camilla laid a wreath at the Australian War Memorial and then shook hands with well-wishers on the second full day of their visit.
At the memorial it was estimated that 4,000 people came to see the couple.
75-year-old King Charles is undergoing treatment for cancerDue to which the itinerary has been shortened. This is King Charles’s 17th visit to Australia and his first since becoming king in 2022. It is the first visit by a sitting British monarch to Australia since her late mother Queen Elizabeth II visited the remote country in 2011.
King Charles and Queen Camilla enjoyed a day of rest before making the first public appearance of their visit at a church service in Sydney on Sunday after arriving late Friday night. They then flew to Canberra, where they visited the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier and a reception at Parliament House.
Before leaving the war memorial, he stopped to greet the hundreds of people who had gathered under clear skies waving Australian flags. Temperatures were forecast to reach a mild high of 24 °C (75 °F).
On Wednesday, King Charles will travel to Samoa, where he will open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
published – October 21, 2024 01:21 PM IST