Tony Abbott among Writers’ Week speakers still being paid
A handful of Writers’ Week speakers will be paid despite this year’s event being cancelled, the new Adelaide Festival board confirmed today.
Authors who did not pull out of Adelaide Writers’ Week 2026 will be paid $250, honouring lost income from book sales, the new Adelaide Festival board confirmed today at a press conference.
This includes former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, high-profile financial journalist Joe Aston, Blanche d’Apluget (the wife of Bob Hawke) and former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr. They are among a handful of remaining writers after around 180 pulled out of Writers’ Week when Adelaide Festival removed Palestinian-Australian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the lineup last week.
The news comes as the board’s new chair Judy Potter, who previously held the role from 2016 to 2023, fronted the press this afternoon after her appointment on Tuesday.
This morning, the Adelaide Festival board released a statement apologising “unreservedly for the harm the Adelaide Festival Corporation has caused” cancelled Palestinian-Australian author Abdel-Fattah.
The board also extended an invitation for her to speak at Writers’ Week 2027, and retracted the former board’s statement from January 8, which said it would be “culturally insensitive” for the author to participate.
A decision to establish a subcommittee to work with “relevant government agencies” and external experts to oversee a board-led review and guide short and long-term Writers’ Week decisions was also overturned.
Potter would not comment on past board decisions, but said the latest statement was “in the best interests of the festival”.
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“We obviously believe this is the right thing to do at this time, that is why we have done it,” she said.
Asked if she was concerned about the reputational fallout this episode would have on the Adelaide Festival, Potter said: “Absolutely”.
“Adelaide Festival has always been a very brave festival, an international festival,” she said.
“It has had issues over the many years that has caused what like we’ve seen today, and it will continue to do that, but people want it for that.”
But “any news is good news”, she said.
“We’ve been getting a lot of coverage, even in the New York Times,” she said.
“I have confidence that 2026 will still be loved.”
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Potter said South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas was not consulted about the decision to invite Abdel-Fattah to the 2027 edition of Writers’ Week.
The Premier was supportive of the former board’s decision to revoke its invitation to Abdel-Fattah and has consistently denied political interference, saying he had “never intervened or directed the board, and nor should I, in fact, as a matter of law, I can’t”.
“Throughout the entirety of this, my only motivation and all the words that I’ve spoken have come from a place of the desire for people to treat each other civilly, with compassion, in the interests of humanity more broadly and seeing that within one another and people will be able to judge my remarks for themselves when they see them,” Malinauskas said.
Today, Potter stressed Adelaide Festival was a “separate legal entity”.
“We make the decision. That is the reality of the situation. We do not seek advice. We take it that we have been given these roles; we are the custodians. I have been through this before, and I’ve acted the same way every time,” Potter said.
A new Writers’ Week director will be appointed “very soon after the 2026 festival”, Potter confirmed.
