King Charles heckled by Indigenous lawmaker Lidia Thorpe on Australia visit

Britain’s King Charles III has been heckled by an Aboriginal lawmaker after he arrived in Australia for the first visit to the country by a reigning monarch in more than a decade.

Charles, who is on his first royal tour since announcing his cancer diagnosis in February, was confronted on Monday after completing an address to Australia’s Parliament in which he urged stronger action against climate change.

“You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back! Give us what you stole from us!” Senator Lidia Thorpe yelled.

“Our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land!”

“This is not your land!” Thorpe continued as she was led away by security.

Charles and Queen Camilla landed in Sydney on Friday, kicking off a nine-day tour of Australia and Samoa.

In his speech to Parliament, Charles called on Australia to take a leadership role in the fight against climate change, calling the growing intensity of bushfires and floods in the country an “unmistakable sign” of a warming planet.

“Australia has all of the natural ingredients to create a more sustainable regenerative way of living,” said Charles, a longtime environmental advocate.

“By harnessing the power with which nature has endowed the nation, whether it be wind or its famous sunshine, Australia is tracking the path towards a better and safer future. It’s in all our interests to be good stewards of the world. And good ancestors to those who come after us.”

Charles and Camilla earlier in the day laid wreaths at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.