Australians are deeply embarrassed by our dishonest politician who today unleashed a tirade against the King and Queen that demonstrated a shocking lack of respect, not only towards the monarchy but towards two visiting septuagenarians.
While the King and Queen showed remarkable poise when attacked by Senator Lidia Thorpe, there is widespread disgust that the couple were attacked in such a way after the monarch, who was undergoing cancer treatment , let us not forget, traveled tens of thousands of miles to visit the nation he holds so dear.
Honestly, it was like watching someone turn on your own grandparents.
Whatever you think of the Royal Family, watching Mrs Thorpe yell at Charles and Camilla made most of us cringe. At best, it made us look uneducated; at worst, deranged. We are the land of camaraderie and solidarity and “she will be right.”
Senator Lidia Thorpe shouts at King Charles and Queen Camilla in Canberra, Australia
At the very least, we like to think of ourselves as warm and courteous. We are good guys. Whether republican or monarchist, we recognize the service and exhaustive charitable work carried out by the Royal Family.
Finding ourselves in the global spotlight because of the renegade senator, widely considered a serial pest, is galling. Worse still, it happened in our parliament, the heart of our democracy, where the King had just given a thoughtful speech paying tribute to our First Nations people and our complicated history.
Thorpe, who released Charles shouting “fuck the colony” and “you’re not my king”, later said he was trying to serve the monarch with a “notice of complicity in Aboriginal genocide”.
While ordinary Australians see free speech as a cornerstone of our democracy, this visceral confrontation was instantly condemned by politicians, fellow senators, war veterans and the general public.
We may live 12,000 miles away, but Australians are genuinely involved in the life of the Royal Family. We know that they have had, to use our language, ab*****d for a year. Attacking a guy who has stopped cancer treatment to renew his ties with a country he has adored since childhood is deeply un-Australian. We are better than that. Kinder. More jovial.
While former Prime Minister Tony Abbott dismissed Thorpe’s attack as “political exhibitionism”, others called for his resignation.
Entertainment journalist Peter Ford was unequivocal: “She is disgusting,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Surely there may be a sanction or penalty that could be imposed.”
Australians have flocked to meet the royal couple.
The King shakes hands with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during his state visit
Radio host Neil Mitchell was also quick to condemn the outburst: ‘Dreadful manners towards a guest in this country. You need a better way to express your point of view.
Victoria Cross recipient Keith Payne, who received the highest military honor for his service in Vietnam, spoke to the King as the royal couple left the reception. He was frank about Mrs Thorpe’s behaviour: “I was extremely surprised that she was able to get through the door.”
Meanwhile, even Ms Thorpe’s fellow senator, Ralph Babet of the United Australia Party, demanded Ms Thorpe apologize: “Showing such utter disrespect to King Charles, who has traveled to Australia despite treatment against ongoing cancer, it’s disgusting.”
He continued: “Senator Thorpe has disgraced not only herself and the Australian Parliament, but every Australian man, woman and child.”
While the Australian Monarchist League called for Thorpe to resign, the royals appeared unfazed by the incident with the King and Queen smiling as they turned to speak to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his fiancée Jodie Haydon.
Australians have flocked to meet the royal couple who, far from losing followers after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, retain enormous goodwill towards “the firm.”
The couple’s calm in the face of provocation evokes memories of how the then Prince Charles reacted exactly 30 years ago when a student shot him at an engagement in Darling Harbour.
On that occasion, the heir to the throne was standing playing with his cufflinks, not knowing what was happening when his bodyguard pushed him to the side of the stage.
The King and Queen showed remarkable poise when attacked by Mrs Thorpe.
Thorpe, a former Greens senator who now represents her state as an independent, had earlier that day scuffled with police outside Parliament in Canberra.
The video shows a police officer holding the senator by her red jumper as she joined protesters outside the Australian War Memorial. Ms Thorpe then removes her jumper in an effort to escape and is seen walking away from the officer following her.
A short time later, in Parliament, she waited until the king had finished his speech and then entered the chamber dressed in a traditional fur coat and shouting: ‘You are not our king, you are not welcome.’ Give us back our land, give us back what you stole from us, our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land.
“Give us a treaty,” he continued. ‘We want a treaty in this country. It’s not your land, it’s not your land. You are not my king, you are not our king.
Thorpe, who had earlier turned her back while playing God Save The King, was quickly removed by security guards.
The senator’s anti-monarchy stance was evident in 2022 when she was sworn in as a member of Parliament. He modified the oath declaring loyalty to Queen Elizabeth II by adding the words ‘her colonizer’ in reference to the then monarch.
Thorpe has a history of activism, courting controversy with several public demonstrations, including protesting against an anti-trans demonstration, temporarily blocking Sydney’s Mardi Gras in protest of police attendance, and shouting profanities outside a Sydney strip club. Melbourne at 3am. She was filmed shouting at a group of men, telling one “you have a small penis.” She resigned as deputy leader of the Greens in the Senate after it was revealed she had a relationship with the former president of the rebel motorcycle gang while also sitting on parliament’s law enforcement committee.
Today the senator was criticized on social networks and many called for her resignation. —You took an oath of office, Lidia. I guess honor and integrity are foreign concepts to you,” one wrote.
Said another; “You took an oath to serve the King and you are paid $250,000 (£130,000) a year to do so. Withdraw your loyalty and return the money you took from the Commonwealth if you don’t want to serve it with respect,” wrote another.
And as another summed up: “Thorpe is a national disgrace.”