Charles heckled by senator at Australia's parliament

King Charles has been heckled by an Indigenous Australian senator, who called for a treaty and accused the crown of stealing Aboriginal land as the monarch concluded a speech at Parliament House in Canberra.

- Kate Lyons, Karen Middleton, Sarah Collard

Charles, on a five-day visit to Australia with Queen Camilla, addressed MPs and senators in the Great Hall of Parliament House yesterday. It was a key moment of his inaugural visit to Australia as monarch.

As he finished the speech - which covered his time as a school pupil in Australia, the Covid pandemic and Australia's vulnerability to the climate crisis - Lidia Thorpe, an independent senator from Victoria, approached the stage yelling: "This is not your country."

"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," shouted Thorpe, who is a fiercely outspoken advocate for Indigenous rights.

"You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty in this country. You are a genocidalist."

As security officers escorted her to the doors, she shouted: "This is not your land. You are not my king. You are not our king." As she left the hall and was forced back into the foyer, Thorpe, who was dressed in a long possum-skin coat, could be heard shouting: "Fuck the colony."

Charles had turned to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and talked quietly on the podium as security prevented Thorpe from approaching the monarch.