Abdel-Fattah drops defamation case against Premier
A Palestinian-Australian author whose controversial removal from the Adelaide Writers’ Week lineup earlier this year led to a mass boycott, has made a final call on her defamation suit against Premier Peter Malinauskas.
Author Randa Abdel-Fattah has dropped her defamation action against SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, Abdel-Fattah confirmed in a video on Instagram on Monday night.
“I wanted to bring a defamation case but pursuing defamation against a sitting premier has proven to carry prohibitive cost and risk,” Abdel-Fattah said.
“But those of us who are committed to the decolonial recognise not all victories are won in courts.”
Abdel-Fattah first announced her lawyers had issued a concerns notice to Malinauskas under the defamation act on January 14. Her legal team sent a second concerns notice to Malinauskas on January 19.
Abdel-Fattah said she launched the defamation action over “many public statements” Malinauskas made about her when he was questioned regarding the government’s role in the Adelaide Festival board removing Abdel-Fattah from the Adelaide Writers’ Week lineup.
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Her case included accusations that Malinauskas called her “antisemetic and hateful” and falsely linked her to the Bondi Beach attack.
Freedom of Information documents obtained by InDaily in February revealed, Abdel-Fattah was removed from its 2026 Writers’ Week lineup because the Adelaide Festival Board feared government intervention.
Her removal led to a hundred-strong writers’ boycott, the entire board and chair’s resignations and the literary festival’s cancellation.
In her Instagram video, Abdel-Fattah said although she was dropping her case, Freedom of Information documents had “exposed” the Premier, and she claimed he would be “a mere footnote in history”.
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In an ABC Radio interview on Tuesday morning, Malinauskas said he tried to “advocate for civil discourse” throughout the Writers’ Week controversy.
“I welcome the fact that it appears as though this court action against me has been dropped obviously, but I’m not running around cheering about it or gloating,” Malinauskas said.
“Obviously the future of Palestine and its people is a really important issue that has a lot of different perspectives around it, and people are entitled to be passionate about it.
“I, for one, have always advocated for, particularly in an Australian setting or a Writers’ Week setting, advocated for civility towards one another, respect for other people’s opinions, without fear of intimidation.”
Abdel-Fattah said that while the case against the Premier was being dropped, she would be taking on La Trobe University and Bendigo Council in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The basis of that legal action is a discrimination claim on the grounds of political belief or activity under Victoria’s Equal Opportunity Act. Abdel-Fattah was programmed to speak about her book Discipline at the Bendigo Writers’ Festival in August, 2025, when a code of conduct sent to authors days before the festival sparked a boycott over censorship concerns.
“Despite what we collectively achieved in Adelaide, our fight against anti-Palestinian racism is only escalating,” Abdel-Fattah said.
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