By Kim Wingerei and Michael West in Sydney
Adelaide Writers’ Week, a core part of South Australia’s premier cultural event, the Adelaide Festival, has finally been cancelled in its 40th year.
There are own goals. And then there is the board of the Adelaide Festival (ably assisted by referee, Premier Peter Malinauskas). After yesterday’s resignation of chair Tracey Whiting and three further members, the board no longer had a quorum to make any decisions.
The chaos follows last week’s “uninvitation” of Palestinian-Australian sociologist, lawyer and author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah. Almost 100 authors and presenters (of the 124 in the programme, according to InDailySA) cancelled their attendance in protest.
It was finally cancelled today. The damage is colossal.
Being one of the most popular and respected writers’ events in Australia, the list of withdrawals includes best-selling local writers Trent Dalton, Helen Garner and Hannah Kent, journalists Sarah Ferguson, Peter Greste and Laura Tingle, as well as international speakers former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, Yanis Varoufakis and Zadie Smith.
Literary luminaries such as Greg Sheridan are among the 30-odd who had yet to cancel. At least publicly. Some planned panel discussions were left with just one participant, and some stage interviews with just a questioner, somewhat stymying the discourse.
But it’s not just writers who are staying away; the main Festival is also seeing significant fallout, with day two of “Tryp”, the music programme, already cancelled because lead acts have said they are no longer coming. Then there are those already signed up and paid for — for events now cancelled, or planned to do so.
Sponsors rattled too
Last year, 362,000 people attended the two events, and according to the SA government’s impact report, they spent over $62 million. The economic impact will be felt not just by the organisers and the state government, but by hotels, restaurants, retailers and cellar doors from Clare Valley to the Padthaway.
At least one sponsor, Mischief Brew, pulled out, with others likely to monitor the situation closely. A low-attendance festival hitting headlines for all the wrong reasons is not an attractive marketing proposition.
Premier Malinauskas in all sorts
The otherwise well-liked SA Premier has perhaps helped the Zionist cause with his vocal support for the decision, but is unlikely to have found much sympathy beyond rusted-on readers of The Advertiser. But perhaps that’s what he was looking for?
The SA state election is in March, too.
Both he and Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis have been caught lying by stating that the Festival removed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman from the 2024 programme at the behest of Dr Abdel-Fattah and 10 others who had written to the board and requested his exclusion because of an article he had written demeaning Palestinians and Arabs.
Notwithstanding the hypocrisy of that request, correspondence from the Festival showed they did not cave in; Friedman withdrew on his own accord.
In an attempt to diminish his earlier comments, Malinauskas has since stated that he had not “directed’ the board to act, but merely voiced “his opinion” in supporting the axing of Dr Abdel-Fattah.
It does, of course, also highlight the double standards of a board that rejected the request for a Jewish participant to be cancelled, for all the right reasons, yet were happy to comply when the target of the complaint was a Palestinian.
What will the board do?
Michael West Media understands that the board members who resigned were all supportive of Louise Adler’s programming decisions and understood the need to review the decision to cancel Dr Abdel-Fattah.
However, with Writers Week still over seven weeks away, it apparently could not be saved. Most of the authors who resigned said they would come if Abdel-Fattah was reinstated.
But as it stands, the board cannot decide anything. The Adelaide Festival is constituted by an Act of Parliament, and board members are appointed by the State Governor at the recommendation of the City of Adelaide and the State Government.
According to the act, the board has to have a maximum of eight members, at least two must be women and two must be men.
After the above was posted, chair Tracey Whiting resigned and also the director Louise Adler, who said in an article in The Guardian explaining her resignation that she “cannot be party to silencing writers”.
The board now has three members, two women and one man, plus a non-voting government observer. No quorum.
In addition, Dr Abdel-Fattah and several of those who have cancelled have engaged lawyers, and (unconfirmed) reports suggest so has Adler.
On Monday afternoon, Adelaide Festival Corporation’s executive director Julian Hobba issued a brief statement saying the situation was “complex and unprecedented”.
We bet it is. Stay tuned.
Kim Wingerei is a businessman turned writer and commentator. He is passionate about free speech, human rights, democracy and the politics of change. Originally from Norway, Kim has lived in Australia for 30 years. Author of ‘Why Democracy is Broken – A Blueprint for Change’.
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker. This article is republished with permission.
Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz
