King Charles III at the Australian Parliament House.
Photo: Victoria Jones/Getty Images
In recent years, King Charles has turned snubbing Prince Harry into an art form. Since Harry relocated to the United States and published a tell-all memoir, the British monarch has unconvincingly claimed he’s “busy” whenever his younger son passes through London; earlier this year, Charles even managed to snub Harry twice in one day.
But now the monarch is Down Under and everything has turned upside down. On Friday, King Charles and Queen Camilla embarked on a nine-day tour of Australia and Samoa, their first visit to a Commonwealth realm since Charles ascended to the throne. While the royals have been met by sizable cheering crowds, the tour has already been marred by health concerns, political snubs, and a confrontation with a heckler.
The trip has been described as a test of Charles’s stamina; it’s his longest overseas visit since announcing his cancer diagnosis in February. It’s also a “test of his popularity” in Australia and beyond, as CNN explained:
The nation — which was colonized by the British in 1788 — has long debated whether a long-distance monarch is still needed. A 1999 referendum on the issue saw voters opt to remain a constitutional monarchy, 55% to 45%. In other Commonwealth nations, Queen Elizabeth II’s death renewed rumblings — some louder than others — of moves to sever ties with the crown and become republics. But in Australia, despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s pro-republic views, there has been no immediate push in that direction.
Charles’s doctors cleared him to pause cancer treatment for the trip, and the 75-year-old’s health is being closely monitored. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the royals are traveling with two full-time doctors and “a supply of the monarch’s blood.”
But despite taking a rest day on Saturday after arriving in Australia the previous day, Charles sparked new health concerns on Sunday when he left a luncheon in his honor after just ten minutes. The king wasn’t spotted again until Monday, when he faced two awkward political situations.
Even before leaving the U.K., Charles knew he would be snubbed by several senior Australian politicians. While Charles and Camilla were greeted by Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton upon their arrival at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday, the leaders of all six Australian states declined their invitations. The state premiers offered various excuses: One had a Cabinet meeting, one said he was focused on his reelection bid, and another vaguely cited “other commitments,” per Sky News.
Then, after Charles concluded his speech in the Great Hall of Parliament House, he was confronted by an Indigenous senator, Lidia Thorpe, who yelled, “You are not my king. You are not sovereign. You are not our king. You are not sovereign.”
The Independent senator continued, “You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. 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.”
Thorpe was escorted out by security, and the royals left the room minutes later to greet the crowd waiting outside:
Thorpe is a DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman who has a history of protesting for Indigenous rights. CNN summed up the history behind her demand for a treaty with Australia’s First Peoples:
The arrival of British settlers to Australia led to the massacre of Indigenous people at hundreds of locations around the country until as recently as the 1930s. Their ancestors still suffer from racism and systemic discrimination in a country that has failed to reverse centuries of disadvantage … Australian’s Indigenous people never ceded sovereignty and have never engaged in a treaty process with the British Crown.
Buckingham Palace offered no official response to the heckling incident — which is unsurprising as it is usually tight-lipped about all drama involving the royals. But between his health and the political concerns, King Charles is seemingly struggling a bit with this so-called “test” of his monarchy. Good thing the trip has only five more days to go!
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