‘Not the Premier’s book club’: Malinauskas addresses criticism over resignations
Premier Peter Malinauskas today assured the Adelaide Festival board was still functional despite four board members – including the chair – resigning over the Writers’ Week lineup controversy. The Greens warned the event was “not the Premier’s book club”.
Premier Peter Malinauskas says the Adelaide Festival board is still functional after four members, including Chair Tracey Whiting, resigned on Sunday night, leaving the organisation in tatters.
“The advice I received late last night is that it’s still formally constituted and capable of making decisions,” Malinauskas said on Monday morning.
“That will be assessed further today, and the department will be getting advice on that throughout the course of the day.
When asked by InDaily how the government planned to salvage the festival, the Premier said: “we keep abreast of the situation, and we monitor it closely and we stand ready to support in any way we can.”
Only three board members and a government observer were left at the helm after the mass exit, impacting the organisation’s quorum. 110 writers have pulled out of the Writers’ Week lineup over the board’s decision last week to remove Sydney-born author and Palestinian advocate Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the Adelaide Writers’ Week lineup.
The board must have a gender composition of two men and two women, according to the Adelaide Festival Corporation Act 1998.
After lawyer Nicholas Linke resigned, Adelaide Airport managing director Brenton Cox is the only man left.
“My understanding is in the act, there’s a catch-all provision for these circumstances, and that the Act doesn’t prescribe a minimum number of board members,” the Premier said.
You might like
“The deficiency of one man doesn’t mean the board is no longer formally constituted.
“That’s the advice I’ve received but that will be checked in throughout the course of the day.”
InDaily understands meetings are being held this morning over the unprecedented situation.
The Premier said his government has not considered who would fill the gaps on the board.
“We haven’t turned our mind to who’s on the board next. I think that’s something that will have to be contemplated by this government or the next in due course but that hasn’t happened yet,” he said.
In a statement on Monday, Adelaide Festival Corporation Executive Director Julian Hobba said the festival would share further updates on the “unprecedented” situation as soon as it can.
“Following the Adelaide Festival Board’s decision on Thursday 8 January and the significant community response, Adelaide Writers’ Week and Adelaide Festival are navigating a complex and unprecedented moment and will share further updates as soon as we are able,” Hobba said.
The cabinet makes board appointments, with the recommendation of Arts Minister Andrea Michaels, which then must be approved by the Governor of South Australia.
SA Greens leader Robert Simms stressed that in the short term, board vacancies should be filled with artists or those with arts expertise –something the current board has lacked since the departure of arts philanthropist and Musica Viva patron Tony Berg in October 2025.
Berg – who previously chaired the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce – resigned from the board last year, saying: “I cannot serve on a board which employs a Director of Adelaide Writers’ Week who continues to deal with the board inappropriately and who programs writers who have a vendetta against Israel and Zionism”.
Stay informed, daily
“I am of Jewish heritage and support Zionism in the sense that I support Israel’s right to exist. In all conscience, I cannot remain on the board while these travesties continue and while we are now forced to put up with them for another 18 months.”
Adelaide Writers’ Week Director Louise Adler declined to comment on Berg’s letter.
Adler has defended the choice of past Writers’ Week participants, saying the literary festival’s point was not to have an environment where everyone agreed with each other.
Simms, along with Federal Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, has called for the Premier to step in, and for stronger legislation to prevent government pressure or interference in Adelaide Festival programming.
“Whatever South Australians’ views on Dr Abdel-Fattah’s writing, this fiasco should alarm anyone who cares about free speech and the independence of our arts institutions,” Simms said
“Writers’ Week is an independent festival, not the Premier’s book club. He doesn’t get to set the reading list.”
When put to the Premier, he said “It’s the sort of thing they would say”.
“I’d invite Sarah Hanson-Young and Robert Simms to actually take the time to pick up the legislation and read it as I have it, and it makes it pretty clear at the moment, it’s beyond question the independence of the board,” the Premier said.
Simms said he was looking closely at the legislation and consulting with the arts community about what could be done to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
“Is one thing for the legislation to set out independence, but it’s quite another for it to work in practice and I want to look at strengthening that to ensure this situation doesn’t happen again,” Simms said.
The mass resignations followed last weeks’ announcement that the board removed Sydney-born author and Palestinian advocate Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the Adelaide Writers’ Week lineup.
The board said it would not be “culturally sensitive” to program Abdel-Fattah so soon after the Bondi mass shooting. Abdel-Fattah’s lawyers have contacted Whiting for more information about the decision flagging their intent to start proceedings.
On Monday, six more past Adelaide Festival leaders and one current contributor joined calls to urge the board to reinstate Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah in an open letter.
Signatories now include Peter Sellars, who is the director of 2026 events Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine and El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered.
*Editor’s Note: The former chair of the Adelaide Festival Tracey Whiting AM is also a director of Solstice Media, publisher of InDaily.
