The Senate of Australia on Monday, November 18, 2024, censured an Indigenous woman parliamentarian, Lidia Thorpe, over her protest against King Charles.
According to Reuters, Senator Linda Thorpe has been censored for protesting against the monarch and accusing him of genocide during his visit to the parliament in October 2024.
The Australian lawmakers voted to approve the censure of Thrope by 46-12 to express their "profound disapproval" of her protest against the British monarch. The monition described her actions as "disrespectful and disruptive" and demanded her disqualification from representing the chamber as a member of any delegation.
Notably the censure motion is politically symbolic but it does not have any real constitutional or legal consequences.
Shortly after the Senate vote on the censure motion, Thrope told reported that she received the notice of the motion against her on Monday morning while boarding a flight to Canberra and she had been denied her right to represent her point of view in the chamber due to flight delay.
She said, “The British Crown committed heinous crimes against the first peoples of this country... I will not be silent. If the colonising king were to come to my country again, our country, then I’ll do it again.”
“They want me to kneel, to be silent, to disappear, but let me be clear ... my loyalty lies with my people, with justice, not with a government or a crown that has systematically worked to erase us… I was denied my right to be in that chamber whilst everybody else voted to shut me down,” she further added.
For the unversed, Thrope yelled "You are not my King," “You committed genocide against our people” and "This is not your land" shortly after King Charles addressed the Great Hall of Parliament last month.
