King Charles’ address to the Australia’s Parliament House is disrupted by Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe who heckles at the King shouting “you are not my King”.
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Report by Ajagbef. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00It's a great honour to be here today and on behalf of the Federal Opposition it is a privilege
00:06and a pleasure to welcome Your Majesties to the Australian Parliament.
00:11It's testament to your recovery in Sydney and today at the War Memorial and indeed here
00:17in this hall in this eclectic gathering.
00:20People have had haircuts, people have shined shoes, suits have been replaced.
00:24That's just the Republicans.
00:27As we know, Your Majesty, you are and I also know that your own spirit has been strengthened
00:37by the constant support of your wife and Queen.
00:40Your Majesty, our Queen, of the many qualities Australians see in you, there is none stronger
00:46than the love you have for your husband and kid.
00:49Upon your return home, Your Majesties, I know that you will.
00:52If Elizabeth was the Queen Australia came to name you, Your Majesty are the King in
00:56Australia already knows.
00:58And we know your long-standing connection with the Australian Defence Force.
01:01I join with the Governor-General and the Prime Minister in congratulating you on your appointment
01:06to the highest honorary ranks in our Navy, Army and Air Force.
01:11Prime Minister and Ms Hayley, President of the Senate and Mr Lambert, Speaker of the
01:18House of Representatives, High Commissioners and Ambassador, Leader of the Opposition
01:25and Mrs Dutton, Honourable Members, Aunty Val, on behalf of the Ngunnawal people and
01:36the Wurundjeri and Akers, ladies and gentlemen, I really am enormously touched by those very
01:46kind welcomes and by your invitation, Prime Minister, to say a few words here in Parliament
01:53House, the national home of Australia's strong and vibrant democratic tradition.
02:00Let me also say how deeply I appreciate this morning's moving Welcome to Country ceremony,
02:07which offers me the opportunity to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the
02:14lands on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people and all First Nations peoples who have loved
02:23and cared for this continent for 65,000 years.
02:28Throughout my life, Australia's First Nations peoples have done me the great honour of sharing
02:35so generously.
02:37This is a feeling which I know she returned in equal measure.
02:44My own first visit came in 1966, as the Prime Minister mentioned, when I had indeed the
02:54life-shaping and life-affirming opportunity to continue part of my education in Victoria.
03:03And, ladies and gentlemen, what an education it was.
03:09I had thought that the school I had been attending in Scotland was remote and testing enough,
03:17but nothing had quite prepared me for the realities of the bush country around my home.
03:24All I can say is that I arrived as an adolescent and left as a more rabid, if not even somewhat
03:31chiselled character than once I had contended with brown snakes, leeches, bumblebees, spiders
03:39and burros.
03:41And bearing in mind, this was very nearly 60 years ago, being given certain unnoticeable
03:48parts of a bull cart to eat from a rambutan in Outback, Queensland, by the hauntingly
03:55evocative cries of the kookaburra, the screeching of the gull, and that Australia has become
04:01a stronger nation as a result of becoming one of the most multicultural on earth.
04:09Today, with all due recognition of the impacts of the global cost-of-living crisis, Australia's
04:18economic growth has been remarkable, and this is a country which, for all its size and diversity,
04:26never omits to look outer.
04:30Australia has offered, and continues to offer, so much to the world.
04:37The character of this country and its people is hardly more vivid than when both were tested
04:44by disaster, the Black Summer of 2019 and 2020, the relentless floods of 2022 and 2023,
04:54tropical cyclones Jasper and Kelly in 2023 and 2024, and, of course, the Civil War.
05:04I cannot tell you how much I have felt the grief and shock of what you have gone through,
05:11having visited many of those communities myself over all these years.
05:18Amid such overwhelming challenges, I have always been deeply impressed by the extraordinary
05:27bravery and resilience of those who look out, and, in that most Australian way, battle on.
05:37The way, for instance, in which firefighters, police, emergency services, defence personnel
05:44and many thousands of volunteers risk their lives to stand by their mates, neighbours
05:51and their strangers, not to mention livestock and property, represents to me the essence
05:58of the Australian character.
06:01...and a magnitude and ferocity, as well as their frequency, they are unique.
06:08The regular role...
06:09This is why Australia's international leadership on global initiatives to protect our climate
06:16and biodiversity is of such absolute and critical importance.
06:20Indeed, the world's first Global Nature Positive Summit was held in Sydney in the past autumn.
06:28I am increasingly encouraged by the Prime Minister's efforts to help turn the tide.
06:34Australia has all the natural ingredients to create a more sustainable regenerative way
06:41of living.
06:42By harnessing the power with which nature is endowed with, whether it be wind or its
06:49famous sunshine, Australia has the diversity to understand the world's problems.
06:57And the sheer brainpower and resolve to formulate practical solutions.
07:03I need hardly say that I am looking forward to joining leaders in AAPIA shortly to support
07:09their work.
07:12Here in Australia meanwhile, my wife and I will have the great privilege of meeting remarkable
07:17scientists, entrepreneurs and community leaders who are paving the way in environmental management
07:25of healthcare, addressing domestic and family violence, promoting literacy in literature
07:33and helping young indigenous Australians to realise their full potential.
07:40I cannot begin to express how pleased we are to be here again, nor how sad I am that it
07:48has to be so short of this occasion.
07:52When we turn our steps homeward, we will carry memories of friendships renewed, of new ones
08:00forged, and of the characteristic warmth and inimitable treatment of Australians, which
08:08you share with those who are fortunate enough to know you.
08:15Give us what you stole from us, our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.
08:26You destroyed our land.
08:28Give us a treaty.
08:30We want a treaty in this country.
08:32You are a genocide.