CANBERRA, Australia, Oct 21, (AP): An Indigenous senator told King Charles III that Australia is not his land as the British royal visited Australia’s parliament on Monday, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the monarch is no longer needed as the country's head of state . Sen. Lidia Thorpe was escorted out of a parliamentary reception for the royal couple after shouting that British colonizers have taken Indigenous land and bones.

"You committed genocide against our people," she shouted. "Give us what you stole from us - our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty.” No treaty was ever struck between between British colonizers and Australia's Indigenous peoples. Charles spoke quietly with Albanese while security officials stopped Thorpe from approaching.

"This is not your land. You are not my king,” Thorpe yelled as she was ushered from the hall. Thorpe is renowned for high-profile protest action. When she was affirmed as a senator in 2022, she wasn't allowed to describe the then-monarch as "the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.” 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 Australians, even during times when we have debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the Crown,” Albanese said. But, he said, "nothing stands still.” Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who wants to keep the British king as Australia’s monarch, noted that even supporters of a republic were honored to attend a reception for the Charles and Queen Camilla at Parliament House in the capital Canberra.