Adelaide Writers Week, a core part of South Australia’s premier cultural event, the Adelaide Festival, is at risk of cancellation in its 40th year. Kim Wingerei and Michael West report.
There are own goals. And then there is the board of the Adelaide Festival (ably assisted by referee, Premier Peter Malinauskas). After yesterday’s resignation of chair Tracey Whiting and three further members, the board no longer has a quorum to make any decisions.
The chaos follows last week’s ‘uninvitation’ of Australian sociologist, lawyer, and author, Randa Abdel-Fattah. Almost 100 authors and presenters (of the 124 in the program, according to InDailySA) have cancelled their attendance in protest.
Can it be saved? The damage is colossal.
Being one of the most popular and respected writers’ events in Australia, the list of withdrawals includes best-selling local writers Trent Dalton, Helen Garner and Hannah Kent, journalists Sarah Ferguson, Peter Greste and Laura Tingle, as well as international speakers Jacinda Ardern, Yanis Varoufakis and Zadie Smith.
Literary luminaries such as Greg Sheridan are among the 30-odd who have yet to cancel. At least publicly. Some planned panel discussions are left with just one participant, and some stage interviews with just a questioner, somewhat stymying the discourse.
But it’s not just writers who are staying away; the main Festival is also seeing significant fallout, with day two of ‘Tryp’, the music program, already cancelled because lead acts have said they are no longer coming. Then there are those already signed up and paid for – for events now cancelled, or planned to do so.
Sponsors rattled too
Last year, 362,000 people attended the two events, and according to the SA Government’s report, they spent over $62m. The economic impact will be felt not just by the organisers and the state government, but by hotels, restaurants, retailers and cellar doors from Clare Valley to the Padthaway.
At least one sponsor, Mischief Brew, has pulled out, with others likely to monitor the situation closely. A low-attendance festival hitting headlines for all the wrong reasons is not an attractive marketing proposition.
Premier Malinauskas in all sorts
The otherwise well-liked SA Premier has perhaps helped the Zionist cause with his vocal support for the decision, but is unlikely to have found much sympathy beyond rusted-on readers of The Advertiser. But perhaps that’s what he was looking for? The SA state election is in March, too.
Both he and Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis have been caught lying by stating that the Festival removed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman from the 2024 program at the behest of Abdel-Fattah and ten others who had written to the board and requested his exclusion because of an article he had written demeaning Palestinians and Arabs.
Notwithstanding the hypocrisy of that request, correspondence from the Festival showed they did not cave in; Friedman withdrew on his own accord.
When are you going to correct your lie Premier?
The AWW Board DID NOT remove Thomas L. Friedman, he withdrew due to scheduling issues.
You need to make a public statement to correct your error – this egregious lie should be corrected & an apology issued
Evidence👇
🐝 pic.twitter.com/qNvtADDrnm— 💧Bee 🐝🌿❤ (@BelindaJones68) January 11, 2026
In an attempt to diminish his earlier comments, Malinauskas has since stated that he had not “directed’ the board to act, but merely voiced “his opinion” in supporting the axing of Abdel-Fattah.
It does, of course, also highlight the double standards of a board that rejected the request for a Jewish participant to be cancelled, for all the right reasons, yet were happy to comply when the target of the complaint was a Palestinian.
Vale Adelaide Writers Week. A literary icon succumbs to Israel pressure
What will the board do?
MWM understands that the board members who resigned were all supportive of Louise Adler’s programming decisions and understood the need to review the decision to cancel Abdel-Fattah. With Writers Week still over seven weeks away, it could still be saved. Most of the authors who have resigned have said they’ll come if Abdel-Fattah is reinstated.
But as it stands, the board cannot decide anything. The Adelaide Festival is constituted by an Act of Parliament, and board members are appointed by the State Governor at the recommendation of the City of Adelaide and the State Government.
According to the act, the board has to have a maximum of eight members, at least two must be women and two must be men.
BREAKING: 3 members of the Adelaide Festival Board have resigned after it refused to reverse its decision to rescind Dr Abdel-Fattah’s invitation. No statement has been issued but their names have been quietly removed from the website.
Four people are now responsible for the ongoing crisis.
— Jo Dyer (@instanterudite.bsky.social) January 11, 2026 at 2:49 PM
After the above was posted, Chair Tracey Whiting has also resigned.
The board now has three members, two women and one man, plus a non-voting government observer. No quorum.
In addition, Abdel-Fattah and several of those who have cancelled have engaged lawyers, and (unconfirmed) reports suggest so has Writers Week Director Louise Adler, who, at the time of writing, has yet to resign her position.
On Monday afternoon, Adelaide Festival Corporation’s executive director Julian Hobba issued a brief statement saying the situation is “complex and unprecedented”.
We bet it is. Stay tuned.
How Lobby Pressure Wrecked Adelaide Writers Week | The West Report