‘Untenable, masterclass in poor governance’: Former Adelaide Writers’ Week director unleashes after event cancellation

The former director of the now-cancelled Adelaide Writers’ Week - who resigned amid a wave of author withdrawals and ongoing public backlash over a decision to disinvite a Palestinian author - has taken aim at the event’s collapse. Louise Adler took aim at the Adelaide Festival board during an appearance on the ABC’s 7.30 Report following the cancellation of the Adelaide Writers’ Week, saying the event’s reputation had been “trashed” and the controversy surrounding the decision to axe Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah made it “untenable”. In a statement on Tuesday, the Adelaide Festival Board confirmed the event “can no longer go ahead as scheduled for this year,” calling the outcome “deeply regrettable”. The board apologised for the distress caused to audiences, artists, donors, corporate partners, government stakeholders and staff. “We also apologise to Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah for how the decision was represented and reiterate this is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia’s worst terror attack in history,” the board said. The board said the initial decision to rescind Dr Abdel-Fattah’s invitation on January 8 was made “out of respect for a community experiencing the pain from a devastating event”. The controversy had escalated after former Writers’ Week director Louise Adler resigned in protest, criticising the board for succumbing to “an atmosphere of intense political pressure” and arguing that the move “weakens freedom of speech.” By the time of her resignation, more than 180 writers and commentators, including former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, Helen Garner, Zadie Smith, Trent Dalton, Peter Greste, Hannah Kent and Evelyn Araluen, had withdrawn from the festival. Before Tuesday’s announcement, the board had also announced that all remaining members, except for the Adelaide City Council representative, will step down to allow a transition to a new board. Ms Adler spoke to 7.30 about how the 2026 cancellation was a “watershed” moment in the event’s history. “I think when we look back on this history we will see a masterclass in poor governance, an act of cultural vandalism, a moment when 180 writers said, ‘We will not support censorship. We will not support the denigration of one particular writer,’” Ms Adler said. She told host Michael Rowland there had been a succession of “dramas” during other writers' festivals where “political interference and donors and lobby groups” were able to influence and “have an effect on what is programmed, and not programmed”. Ms Adler also singled out SA Premier Peter Malinauskas as being “upfront” in communicating his opposition to Dr Abdel-Fattah’s appearance. Addressing the response of the board as a “word salad”, she said it suggested an “implied dog whistle” by invoking the Bondi terror attack. Ms Adler asked: “We have to think about that very seriously, because if that was not pertinent, why was it in there?” “If we were not raising perhaps the perception that she had something to do with a Bondi atrocity, it should never have been invoked in that very clumsy statement.” Louise Adler resigns as director Ms Adler earlier on Tuesday announced she would step down as director in an open letter published by the Guardian. “The Adelaide festival board’s decision – despite my strongest opposition – to disinvite the Australian Palestinian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah from Adelaide Writers’ Week weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation, where lobbying and political pressure determine who gets to speak and who doesn’t,” she wrote. Dr Abdel-Fattah had been invited to the event to discuss her newest novel, Discipline. On Thursday, the author was advised she would no longer take part in the 2026 event, and her profile quietly taken down from the Writers’ Week website the same morning. In an earlier statement, the Adelaide Festival board confirmed it had made the decision after weeks of internal review, citing cultural sensitivity concerns in the wake of the Bondi terror attack. Despite support from SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, the decision has prompted a furore of criticism from the arts sector. Ms Adler said the board’s reference to community cohesion in its justification should be “treated with scepticism”. “This is a managerialist term intended to stop thinking. Who, after all, would argue in favour of social division? Presumably only a terrorist or a nihilist,” she wrote. “The raison d’être of art and literature is to disrupt the status quo: and one doesn’t have to be a student of history to know that art in the service of ‘social cohesion’ is propaganda.” She claimed the board had succumbed to an “atmosphere of intense political pressure”, and that her resignation came after concluding that she could not “be party to silencing writers”. The controversy surrounding Dr Abdel-Fattah includes a number of past comments which critics have labelled anti-Semitic, a claim the lawyer-academic has vociferously denied. “I stand for the rights of all people. I stand for the principle that we are all equal, I stand for the rights of Jews, Palestinians, Muslims, everybody of every racial and religious group to live in,” she told the ABC on Tuesday. She also defended her previous claim that Zionists had “no claim or right to cultural safety”, a phrase that has been widely circulated in the media. “I have never, ever called for Jews to be unsafe,” she said, before later adding: “Zionism is not a racial or religious identity, it is a political ideology.” “It is as absurd as saying that communists have the right to cultural safety or Islamism or white supremacy or misogyny. “I’m talking about the espousing of Zionist ideology. I have sat in rooms where people have said that ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is justified. “I am entitled to say there should be no space for people to call for genocide.” Her comments refer to allegations brought by a number of humanitarian organisations, genocide scholars and an independent UN inquiry that have accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Israel has rejected these accusations, including when a case was brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice. Dr Abdel-Fattah’s removal from AWW follows a lengthy investigation into her academic work. Last month, she was cleared of any wrongdoing after a 10-month probe into her research at Macquarie University. The investigation was triggered in February 2025 after Federal Education Minister Jason Clare asked the Australian Research Council to examine her spending and any potential conflicts of interest. An $870,000 council grant awarded in 2022 for research into Arab and Muslim-Australian social movements was suspended earlier in 2025 and reinstated in December.