Senator Lidia Thorpe faces bipartisan rebuke and calls to resign after heckling King Charles in Parliament

Senator Lidia Thorpe has been labelled an “embarrassment” by current and former Indigenous Federal politicians as the fallout from her expletive-laden rant directed at King Charles continued on Tuesday.

“Perhaps she should have been told not to be there because, again, it was completely dishonourable, her conduct was, and an embarrassment and for once she could have put others before her,” Shadow Indigenous Australians minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said.

Olympian and Australia’s first female Indigenous senator Nova Peris also took to social media, to denounce the “embarrassing and disrespectful ... outburst”.

“Senator Thorpe’s actions (Monday) do not reflect the manners, or approach to reconciliation, of Aboriginal Australians at large,” the former Labor senator wrote.

“They reflect only her, and it is important to clarify that the vast majority of us would not engage in this unconstructive confrontational way.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has called on the Greens-turned-independent MP to resign after she heckled the King, questioning how she is happy to accept $250,000 annual salary from a system that she fundamentally didn’t believe in.

“Give us what you stole from us, our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” Senator Thorpe yelled shortly after the King addressed the Great Hall at Parliament House on Monday.

“You are a genocidalist, this is not your land. This is not your land. You are not my king, you are not our king.

“F... the colony.”

The protest came about an hour after King Charles and Queen Camilla were greeted by a crowd of a thousand outside the Australian War Memorial.

“I think there’s a very strong argument for somebody who doesn’t believe in the system but is willing to take a quarter of a million dollars a year from the system, to resign in principle,” the Opposition leader told Sunrise.

“If you were really truly about your cause and not just about yourself, then I think that’s a decision that you would make.”

Senator Thorpe remained unapologetic in the face of overwhelming backlash, telling ABC radio she did not “assimilate to the colonial structures”.

“I will be there for another three years, everybody, so get used to truth-telling,” she said.

The Senator said she didn’t “care what Dutton says”.

Senator Price said any of her Senate colleagues could have predicted what Senator Thorpe was going to do.

“I knew that she was going to, at some point, behave this way,” she told 6PR.

“I indicated to her in that room, you know, behave yourself basically … don’t do what I’m pretty sure you’re planning to do.

“We all knew that, for those of us who sit in the chamber with her, we know that she can’t help herself.

Senator Price said the independent should be censured because Parliament needed to show her behaviour had escalated beyond a point where it could be accepted.

“If you’re not going to respect others but expect to be respected, well, then if you’re going to conduct yourself in such a manner, then you should face the consequences of that conduct,” she said.

Ms Peris said although she had supported Australia becoming a Republic for many years, the issue had to be decided through a democratic process.

Highlighting Senator Thorpe’s oath of allegiance to the Queen when she was sworn in, Ms Peris said elected representatives were required to respect “our nation’s constitutional framework” regardless of personal views.

“If Senator Thorpe was not on board with this, she should not have accepted her position and made her affirmation in the first place,” she said.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer came to the King’s defence, saying the monarch was doing a “fantastic job” despite battling cancer.

“We should remember in the context of health, that he is out there doing his public service notwithstanding the health challenges he himself has had,” Sir Keir told media in the UK.

WA senator Dean Smith – a leading supporter of the constitutional monarchy – has called on the senate president to discipline Senator Thorpe, saying the outburst reflected badly on every member of the chamber.

“This is becoming a pattern of disruption which is unbecoming of a senator and is reflecting poorly on every Senator,” the Liberal MP said.

“It is time for the Senate president (Sue Lines) to protect the integrity of the Senate and to formally discipline Senator Thorpe.

“If this appalling behaviour is not called out then it will become the norm.”

Labor MP and Social Services Minster Amanda Rishworth called the protest “pretty disrespectful” not only to the monarch but also to the “many great Australians” who had gathered to hear the King.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neill described it as “inappropriate” and said it had detracted from a “generous and beautiful” Welcome to Country delivered by respected Ngunnawal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan.

Liberal senator Simon Birmingham called her actions “reprehensible” and said her behaviour had brought “shame” upon the parliament “and those she pretends to represent.

But the Opposition Senate leader was hesitant to support censuring her in the chamber, warning she would “revel” in the attention such a move would bring.

Similarly, Premier Roger Cook said the whole thing was a stunt that did no service to the people who she represented.

“Lydia Thorpe’s action yesterday was simply an exercise in self-promotion, I don’t think she believes a word of what she was saying but she will say anything just to give herself media attention,” he said.

National Party senator Bridget McKenzie labelled Senator Thorpe’s actions “appalling”.

“We’re embarrassed across the globe as a result of this,” she said.

Senator Thorpe was further drawn into controversy after an image of a beheaded King Charles appeared on her X account.

Explaining the since-deleted post on Monday evening, Senator Thorpe blamed someone else in her team for posting the image.

“Earlier tonight, without my knowledge, one of my staff shared an image to my Instagram stories created by another account,” she wrote on X.

“I deleted it as soon as I saw.

“I would not intentionally share anything that could be seen to encourage violence against anyone.

“That’s not what I’m about.”