Charles’s heckler makes me embarrassed to be Australian. It was like watching someone turn on your grandparents, writes ANGELA MOLLARD

Australians have been deeply embarrassed by our rogue politician who today unleashed on the King and Queen in a tirade that showed a shocking lack of respect not only for the monarchy, but also for two visiting septuagenarians.

Although the King and Queen displayed a remarkable attitude when they came under fire from Senator Lidia Thorpe, there is widespread disgust that the couple were targeted in such a way after the monarch – who underwent cancer treatment to we will not forget – had traveled tens of thousands of miles to visit the nation he cherishes with so much affection.

Honestly, it was like watching someone turn on your own grandparents.

Whatever you think of the Royal Family, watching Mrs Thorpe shout at Charles and Camilla made most of us cringe. At best she made us look uncivilized; at worst, unhinged. We are the land of camaraderie and solidarity and ‘she will be right’.

At the very least, we like to think of ourselves as warm and courteous. We are good people. Whether republican or monarchist, we recognize the service and exhaustive charity work of the Royal Family.

It is humiliating to be in the global spotlight because of the renegade senator, who is widely regarded as a serial pest. Worse, it happened in our Parliament, the heart of our democracy, where the King had just delivered a thoughtful speech paying tribute to our First Nations people and our complicated history.

Mrs Thorpe, who exploded at Charles shouting ‘f*** the colony’ and ‘you’re not my king’, later said she was trying to serve the monarch with a ‘notice of complicity in the genocide of the Aboriginal people’.

While ordinary Australians see freedom of speech as a cornerstone of our democracy, this deep-seated confrontation was immediately condemned by politicians, fellow senators, war veterans and the public.

We may live 12,000 miles away, but Australians are genuinely invested in the lives of the royal family. We know that, to use our language, they have been at it for a year. It is deeply un-Australian to attack a guy who stopped his cancer treatment to renew ties with a country he has adored since childhood. We are better than that. Friendlier. More conversational.

While former Prime Minister Tony Abbott dismissed Ms Thorpe’s attack as “political exhibitionism”, others called for her resignation.

Entertainment reporter Peter Ford was unequivocal: “She is disgusting,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “A sanction or fine could certainly be imposed on her.”

Australians have flocked to meet the royal couple

The king shakes hands with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during his state visit

Top-rated radio host Neil Mitchell was also quick to condemn the outburst: “Terrible manners towards a guest in this country. She needs a better way to get her point across.”

Victoria Cross recipient Keith Payne, who received the highest military award for his service in Vietnam, spoke to the King as the royal couple left the reception. He was blunt about Mrs Thorpe’s behaviour: ‘I was absolutely amazed that she came through the door.’

Meanwhile, even fellow United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet demanded that Ms Thorpe apologise: ‘It is disgusting to show such total disrespect to King Charles who has traveled to Australia despite ongoing cancer treatment.’

He continued: “Senator Thorpe has disgraced not only himself and the Australian Parliament, but every Australian man, woman and child.”

While the Australian Monarchist League has called for Ms Thorpe’s resignation, the royal family appeared unfazed by the incident with the King and Queen smiling as they turned to speak to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his fiancée Jodie Haydon.

Australians have flocked to meet the royal couple, who, far from losing supporters in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, retain enormous goodwill towards ‘the company’.

The couple’s calm in the face of the provocation brings back memories of how the then Prince Charles reacted exactly thirty years ago when a student shot at him during an engagement in Darling Harbour.

On that occasion, the heir to the throne was twiddling his cufflinks, unsure of what was happening when he was pushed to the side of the stage by his bodyguard.

The King and Queen showed remarkable poise when coming under fire from Mrs. Thorpe

Ms Thorpe, a former Greens senator who now represents her state as an independent, had gotten into an altercation with police outside parliament in Canberra earlier in the day.

Video shows a police officer holding the senator by her red sweater as she joined protesters outside the Australian War Memorial. Mrs Thorpe then takes off her jumper in an attempt to escape and is seen walking away from the officer following her.

A short time later, she waited in Parliament until the king had finished his speech and then walked into the hall, dressed in a traditional fur coat, and shouted: ‘You are not our king, you are not welcome. Give us back our land, give us what you stole from us, our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You have destroyed our country.

“Give us a treaty,” she continued. ‘We want a treaty in this country. It’s not your country, it’s not your country. You are not my king, you are not our king.”

Mrs Thorpe, who had previously turned her back as God Save The King was played, was quickly removed by security guards.

The senator’s anti-monarchy stance became clear in 2022 when she was sworn into parliament. She amended the oath declaring allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II by adding the words “her colonization,” referring to the then monarch.

Ms Thorpe has a history of activism, causing controversy with several public demonstrations including protesting an anti-trans rally, temporarily blocking the Sydney Mardi Gras in protest at the police presence and shouting profanities outside a strip club in Melbourne at 3am. She was filmed shouting at a group of men and telling one: ‘You have a small penis’. She resigned as deputy leader of the Greens in the Senate after it emerged she was in a relationship with the former president of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang, while also serving on parliament’s law enforcement committee.

Today, the senator was criticized on social media, with many calling for her resignation. ‘You took an oath of office, Lidia. I think honor and integrity are foreign concepts to you,” one wrote.

Said another; “You took an oath to serve the king and you get paid $250,000 a year for that. “Withdraw your allegiance and pay back the money you took from the Commonwealth if you won’t serve it with respect,” wrote another.

And as another summed it up: ‘Thorpe is a national disgrace.’