Adelaide Writers Week: No decorum without a quorum.
Adelaide Writers’ Week, a key 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.
They have their own goals. And then there’s the Adelaide Festival board (ably supported by referee Prime Minister Peter Malinauskas). Following yesterday’s resignation of President Tracey Whiting and three other members, the board no longer has a quorum to make any decisions.
The chaos came after Australian sociologist, lawyer and author Randa Abdel-Fattah was ‘not invited’ last week. Almost 100 writers and presenters (out of 124 on the show InDailySA) canceled their participation in the protest.
Can it be saved? The damage is huge.
One of Australia’s most popular and respected author events, the list of retreatants includes best-selling local authors 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. The fact that some planned panel discussions have a single participant and some on-stage interviews have only one questioner disrupts the discourse somewhat.
But it’s not just writers who stay away; The Main Festival is also experiencing significant negativity; The second day of the music program ‘Tryp’ was canceled because the lead actors said they would not come anymore. There are also those who have already registered and paid for events that are currently canceled or scheduled to take place.
Sponsors went crazy too
Last year 362,000 people attended the two events and according to a SA Government report they spent over $62 million. The economic impact will be felt not just by organizers and the state government, but by hotels, restaurants, retailers and cellar doors from the Clare Valley to Padthaway.
At least one sponsor, Mischief Brew, has pulled out, while others are likely to monitor the situation closely. A poorly attended festival making headlines for all the wrong reasons is not an attractive marketing proposition.
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Premier Malinauskas of all kinds
The otherwise well-liked SA Prime Minister perhaps helped the Zionist cause with his vocal support for the decision, but he is unlikely to find much sympathy beyond rusty readers. Advertiser. But maybe that’s what he was looking for? SA state elections are also in March.
Both he and Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis were caught lying when they said the Festival had removed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman from its 2024 lineup at the behest of Abdel-Fattah and ten others who wrote to the board and demanded his expulsion over an article disparaging Palestinians and Arabs.
Despite the hypocrisy of this request, correspondence from the Festival showed that they did so. Negative enter the cave; Friedman withdrew voluntarily.
When will you correct your lie, Prime Minister?
The AWW Board did NOT remove Thomas L. Friedman, he withdrew due to scheduling issues.
You must make a public statement to correct your mistake – this terrible lie must be corrected and an apology must be issued
Evidence👇
🐝 pic.twitter.com/qNvtADDrnm— 💧Bee 🐝🌿❤ (@BelindaJones68) January 11, 2026
In an attempt to mitigate his earlier comments, Malinauskas stated that he “did not instruct” the board to take action, but merely expressed his “opinion” in support of Abdel Fattah’s dismissal.
Of course, this also highlights the double standards of a board that rejects a request to cancel a Jewish participant for all the right reasons, but is happy to comply when the target of the complaint is a Palestinian.
Vale Adelaide Writers Week. A literary icon succumbed to Israeli pressure
What will the board do?
MWM understands that the board members who resigned all supported Louise Adler’s programming decisions and understand that the decision to cancel Abdel-Fattah should be reviewed. Even though Writers’ Week is still more than seven weeks away, it could still be salvaged. Most of the writers who resigned said they would come if Abdülfettah was reinstated.
However, as it is, the board cannot decide anything. The Adelaide Festival is created by an Act of Parliament and its board members are appointed by the State Governor on the advice of the City of Adelaide and the State Government.
According to the law, the board must consist of a maximum of eight members; At least two must be women and two must be men.
BREAKING NEWS: Three members of the Adelaide Festival Board have resigned after Dr Abdel-Fattah refused to reverse his decision to cancel his invitation. No explanation was given, but their names were quietly removed from the website.
Four people are now responsible for the ongoing crisis.
—Jo Dyer (@instanterudite.bsky.social) January 11, 2026, 14:49
Following the publication of the above, President Tracey Whiting also resigned.
The board currently has three members, two women and one man, as well as a non-voting government watchdog. There is no quorum.
In addition, Abdel-Fattah and many of the cancelers have settled with lawyers, and (unconfirmed) reports indicate that so has Writers’ Week Director Louise Adler, who has yet to resign from her position at the time of this writing.
On Monday afternoon, Adelaide Festival Corporation chief executive Julian Hobba issued a brief statement saying the situation was “complex and unprecedented”.
We bet it is. Stay tuned.
How Lobby Pressure Ruined Adelaide Writers’ Week | West Report
Michael West was founded Michael West Media Focusing on public interest journalism in 2016, particularly the growing power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor for Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and was even once a stockbroker.
