Senator Pauline Hanson has slammed anti-monarchy protestors who marched in Australia on the National Day of Mourning for the Queen’s death.
Thousands of activists called for the end of the monarchy in cities across the country while brandishing Aboriginal flags and banners.
Among them was Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe, who refused to attend the memorial service for Queen Elizabeth II and instead opted to dip her hands in red paint symbolising blood and lead the protest campaigning.
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Thorpe told the crowds in Melbourne: “The Crown has blood on their hands, our people are still dying in this country every single day, the Crown’s boot is on our neck and we are sick of it.”
Fellow politician Pauline Hanson didn’t take too kindly to Ms Thorpe’s actions and launched a scathing attack while appearing on Sky News Australia.
She told host Chris Kenny: “I don’t believe she’s loyal to the Parliament, to the people she’s supposed to represent, that’s all Australians in this nation, I think she’s a despicable person and people have got what they voted for.”
Throughout the protests, there were reports of activists smearing red paint across parliamentary buildings as well as lighting the Australian flag up in flames.
In Melbourne, chants of ‘off with his head, off with the King’, were heard throughout the CBD as people marched from Birrarung Marr to Parliament House.
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Meanwhile, a mural of the Queen near Sydenham train station in Sydney was painted over in the colours of the Aboriginal flag.
While Hanson did not feature at the Queen’s memorial, which was attended by many other politicians, she took exception to the protests and particularly the burning of the flag.
She continued on Sky News Australia: “If they think it represents the monarchy they’re fools. It represents the Australian people, it represents our nation, it represents the people who have fought and lost their lives and sacrifices made for the country that we have today.
“These people are so ignorant they have no idea what they’re protesting about and they think it’s about the monarchy, it’s not about the monarchy it’s about us as a nation and they’re being so divisive.
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“I think they’re ignorant, misled and they need to go back to studying this in school, what is our history, how Australia came about, that we are a federation, that we actually govern ourselves, we elect our own politicians, we’re not controlled by the monarchy.”
The One Nation leader had not attended the memorial service as she had labelled it a ‘get together’ for politicians and maintained she would give her opinion on the Queen next week in Senate.
Jayden Collins