King Charles III Gets Mocked by Australian Senator During Visit to Canberra: You're Committing Genocide

King of England Charles III with Australian Prime Minister Albanese. (Twitter/@RoyalFamily)

JAKARTA - King Charles was accused of "genocide" by an Indigenous senator at Australia's Parliament House on Monday, moments after he delivered a speech in which he said he "respected the traditional owners of the land".

The king, on his 16th official visit to Australia and his first overseas trip since being diagnosed with cancer, had just finished his speech when independent senator and Indigenous activist Lidia Thorpe shouted that she did not accept Charles' sovereignty over Australia.

"You are committing genocide against our people," Thorpe said, according to Reuters on October 22.

"Give us back our land. Give us what you stole from us - our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You have destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty," she said.

Thorpe, who has disrupted previous events protesting Australia's colonization, was barred from approaching the king, who spoke quietly to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the podium but was unmoved. Thorpe was then escorted out of the courtroom.

Mr. Thorpe said the incarceration and violence caused by colonization could only end with a national agreement between the government and Indigenous people to address First Nations issues.

Meanwhile, former prime minister Tony Abbott of the conservative Liberal Party, who attended the event, told reporters it was "a shameful display of political sleaze".

A palace source said the king and queen thanked the thousands of people who attended, adding they were "only sorry we didn't have time to stop and talk to everyone. The warmth and scale of the reception was absolutely amazing".

The protest was a departure from a series of tributes to King Charles and Queen Camilla from dignitaries and well-wishers in the crowd, with Mr Albanese speaking of the respect Australians have for their monarch and praising Charles for his long-standing advocacy on climate change.

His speech only touched briefly on the republican cause, which is supported by Mr. Albanese and much of his center-left Labor Party.

"The Australia you first knew has grown and developed in many ways," he said.

"But through the changes of these decades, our bonds of respect and affection have matured and endured," he added.

PM Albanese has ruled out plans for a referendum to turn Australia into a republic after a government-backed referendum to create an Indigenous advisory body was defeated earlier this year.

The visit to parliament follows a trip to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra where the royal couple met more than a thousand well-wishers.

The king is due to continue their visit to Australia in Sydney on Tuesday, before heading to Samoa to attend a meeting of the British Commonwealth of Nations.