Ousted writer launches defamation action against South Australian premier

The Palestinian-Australian writer removed from Adelaide Writers’ Week by the Adelaide Festival board says she is taking legal action against the South Australian premier, accusing him of defamation.

Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah said on Wednesday that her lawyers had sent a concerns notice to Peter Malinauskas over comments he made at a news conference on Tuesday.

Academic and writer Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah.

Her legal action comes after a dramatic few days in South Australia, with the cancellation on Tuesday of Adelaide Writers’ Week, and the resignation of its director Louise Adler, after 180 authors quit the line-up following a decision by members of the Adelaide Festival board to remove the academic from the literary festival’s program.

The Adelaide Festival board announced last week that while it was not suggesting “in any way” that Abdel-Fattah or her writing had any connection with the Bondi attack, given her past statements, “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi”.

Conservative Jewish groups previously criticised the Palestinian writer for social media posts critical of Israel.

In a post on Instagram on Wednesday, Abdel-Fattah wrote that Malinauskas’ comments “suggested I am an extremist terrorist sympathiser and directly linked me to the Bondi atrocity. This was a vicious assault on me”.

“For the past week since I was cancelled by the Adelaide Festival board, the South Premier Peter Malinauskas has made many public statements about me and my character,” she wrote on Instagram.

“We have never met and he has never attempted to contact me. He knows nothing about me, beyond what he has been told by the Murdoch press and the pro-Israel lobby, which he has apparently accepted without question.”

On Tuesday, Malinauskas was asked during a press conference whether there was any political interference in the festival board’s decision to remove Abdel-Fattah from Adelaide Writers’ Week.

“Can you imagine if a far-right Zionist walked into a Sydney mosque and murdered 15 people?” the premier told reporters. “Can you imagine that as premier of this state, I would actively support a far-right Zionist going to writers’ week and speaking hateful rhetoric towards Islamic people? Of course I wouldn’t.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“The reverse is happening in this instance, and I’m not going to support that either, and that’s a reasonable position for me to have.”

Malinauskas is expected to hold a press conference imminently.

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When contacted for comment, his office said it had not been contacted by Abdel-Fattah’s lawyers.

More to come

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