Randa Abdel-Fattah serves defamation notice to South Australian premier

The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, has been served a formal concerns notice for defamation by Palestinian writer and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah over his public comments about her cancellation from the Adelaide Writers’ Week program. Lawyers acting for Abdel-Fattah delivered the notice on Wednesday, saying the fallout from her removal from the 2026 event — which is itself now cancelled — is far from over.

The notice follows a week in which the majority of guests scheduled to appear withdrew in protest, most of the Adelaide festival board resigned, and the festival’s director, Louise Adler, resigned. In an Instagram statement Abdel-Fattah accused the premier of making harmful public statements and said she “refused to become a political punching bag”, adding “We have never met and he has never attempted to contact me.” She said Malinauskas had gone “even further” than previous statements by linking her to the Bondi atrocity and allegedly suggesting, by way of analogy, that she was “an extremist terrorist sympathiser”.

At a press doorstop the premier used a hypothetical analogy: “Can you imagine if a far-right Zionist walked into a Sydney mosque and murdered 15 people? … And I think that’s a reasonable position for me to take, it’s a view that I believe.” Abdel-Fattah confirmed she has instructed Michael Bradley of the legal firm Marque to act for her; Bradley has also acted for pianist Jayson Gillham in a discrimination case.

Key Topics

Politics, Randa Abdel-fattah, Adelaide Writers Week, Peter Malinauskas, South Australia, Defamation