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 paid his “respects to the traditional owners of the lands”.

Charles, on his 16th official visit to Australia and his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer, had finished speaking when independent senator and Indigenous activist Lidia Thorpe shouted that she did not accept Charles’ sovereignty over Australia.

“You committed genocide against our people,” she said. “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 treaty.”

Thorpe, who has disrupted previous events protesting over the colonisation of Australia, was stopped from approaching the king, who spoke quietly to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the podium but was otherwise unfazed. Thorpe was then escorted out of the chamber.