@mal8888au.bsky.social
Reposted
Next…
Adelaide Festival board members, chair quit after author's cancellation from Writers' Week
The Adelaide Festival board's decision to cancel the appearance of Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from this year's Adelaide Writers' Week has prompted further fallout, with several b...
www.abc.net.au
January 11, 2026 at 9:57 AM
Next…
Reposted
The campaign has seamlessly pivoted from demanding the royal commission to demanding the right to handpick the commissioner, next will be the demand to dictate the terms of reference.
Despite everything we’ve seen over the past two years, this is probably the most shameful episode in Australian media history/ political collusion.
The lead story on the SMH is Albanese’s political opponent, who lost his seat, trying to force the government to back his own pick for a RC. Madness.
The lead story on the SMH is Albanese’s political opponent, who lost his seat, trying to force the government to back his own pick for a RC. Madness.
January 7, 2026 at 10:46 PM
The campaign has seamlessly pivoted from demanding the royal commission to demanding the right to handpick the commissioner, next will be the demand to dictate the terms of reference.
Reposted
And, as we predicted, he folded
The point is that, while criminal proceedings are on foot, a royal commission can't look at anything to do with the Bondi shootings or the shooters, including why and how they did it, that is it can't touch on the subject that is its sole reason for being established. It will achieve nothing.
There's a glaring problem with calls for a royal commission into the Bondi terror attack
Australians deserve answers after the Bondi Beach shooting — but a royal commission won't deliver them.
www.crikey.com.au
January 8, 2026 at 9:53 AM
And, as we predicted, he folded
Reposted
Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah is our client and we are proud to represent her. This cancellation is unjustifiable, morally and legally.
Authors withdraw from festival after Palestinian Australian author dropped
After Randa Abdel-Fattah was dropped from Adelaide Writers' Week by the Adelaide Festival Board, a slew of authors, including Michelle de Kretser, have withdrawn from the event.
www.abc.net.au
January 8, 2026 at 9:58 AM
Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah is our client and we are proud to represent her. This cancellation is unjustifiable, morally and legally.
Reposted
That they’re coming after the judges reflects their belief that they now completely own the public square. This is late-stage McCarthyism.
This is how the Oz are reporting the (main??) criticism of Bell: she once made a decision with others on the HIGH COURT about environmental protest law bans (I remember covering those, draconian) that was later CITED by a different court to allow anti genocide protests to go ahead. My god.
January 8, 2026 at 9:51 PM
That they’re coming after the judges reflects their belief that they now completely own the public square. This is late-stage McCarthyism.
Reposted
“stepped up” is an interesting way to describe “wet his pants”
January 8, 2026 at 10:46 PM
“stepped up” is an interesting way to describe “wet his pants”
Reposted
“Cultural sensitivity” means destroying an entire arts festival rather than allowing a Palestinian person to come along and talk about her new novel.
January 9, 2026 at 12:09 AM
“Cultural sensitivity” means destroying an entire arts festival rather than allowing a Palestinian person to come along and talk about her new novel.
Reposted
. @mollyjongfast.bsky.social RTYI - over 100 writers have now cancelled their appearance at the Adelaide Writers Week
www.artshub.com.au/news/news/ad...
www.artshub.com.au/news/news/ad...
Adelaide Writers Week in disarray as almost 100 writers boycott over Board’s ‘censorship’ of Randa Abdel-Fattah
Helen Garner, Melissa Lucashenko and Zadie Smith are among the more than 40 writers to have withdrawn from Adelaide Writers Week in the last 24 hours.
www.artshub.com.au
January 10, 2026 at 9:58 AM
. @mollyjongfast.bsky.social RTYI - over 100 writers have now cancelled their appearance at the Adelaide Writers Week
www.artshub.com.au/news/news/ad...
www.artshub.com.au/news/news/ad...
Reposted
The focus on the ‘sensible centre’ has created a bad map where the road leads to nowhere, ignoring evidence when convenient and stifling democratic debate.
Order a copy of Dead Centre:
https://australiainstitute.org.au/store-dead-centre-vantage-point-issue-2/
Order a copy of Dead Centre:
https://australiainstitute.org.au/store-dead-centre-vantage-point-issue-2/
January 10, 2026 at 10:00 PM
The focus on the ‘sensible centre’ has created a bad map where the road leads to nowhere, ignoring evidence when convenient and stifling democratic debate.
Order a copy of Dead Centre:
https://australiainstitute.org.au/store-dead-centre-vantage-point-issue-2/
Order a copy of Dead Centre:
https://australiainstitute.org.au/store-dead-centre-vantage-point-issue-2/
Reposted
100%. We’ve seen the dossiers on individual targets that get compiled and sent to institutions in coordinated assaults. They’re incredibly detailed. The intended effect is overwhelm, and most institutions are not equipped to understand or resist it.
I wrote earlier about the catastrophic effects of pro-Israel pressure campaigns on our cultural institutions, but it seems no lessons have been learned
open.substack.com/pub/nickfeik...
open.substack.com/pub/nickfeik...
January 9, 2026 at 4:32 AM
100%. We’ve seen the dossiers on individual targets that get compiled and sent to institutions in coordinated assaults. They’re incredibly detailed. The intended effect is overwhelm, and most institutions are not equipped to understand or resist it.
Reposted
Israel has begun implementing its plan to end the Palestinian refugee issue by demolishing its most important symbol: the refugee camp.
January 8, 2026 at 9:58 PM
Israel has begun implementing its plan to end the Palestinian refugee issue by demolishing its most important symbol: the refugee camp.
Reposted
"The Australia Institute’s decision to withdraw its involvement in, and sponsorship of, Adelaide Writers’ Week was easy to make but raises difficult questions", writes Dr Richard Denniss in The Point.
Read the full piece here: thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...
Read the full piece here: thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...
January 9, 2026 at 6:04 AM
"The Australia Institute’s decision to withdraw its involvement in, and sponsorship of, Adelaide Writers’ Week was easy to make but raises difficult questions", writes Dr Richard Denniss in The Point.
Read the full piece here: thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...
Read the full piece here: thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...
Reposted
the Royal Commission will be designed to give political cover for the repression of speech against Israel's genocide against Palestine. So no, they definitely will not look at that.
January 9, 2026 at 2:40 AM
the Royal Commission will be designed to give political cover for the repression of speech against Israel's genocide against Palestine. So no, they definitely will not look at that.
Reposted
Would expect them to hide behind a suppression order after an insane precedent was set in Lattouf v ABC: www.crikey.com.au/2025/07/01/p...
Lattouf was sacked 'to appease the pro-Israel lobbyists'. Why are their identities suppressed?
Though inherently controversial, suppression orders are a common feature of court proceedings — often appropriately applied, and sometimes too freely.
www.crikey.com.au
January 9, 2026 at 8:00 AM
Would expect them to hide behind a suppression order after an insane precedent was set in Lattouf v ABC: www.crikey.com.au/2025/07/01/p...
Reposted
There is no possible culture worth shit if it capitulates to any form of fascism, be it Nazism or Zionism. We need to build new cultural institutions.
January 9, 2026 at 2:28 AM
There is no possible culture worth shit if it capitulates to any form of fascism, be it Nazism or Zionism. We need to build new cultural institutions.
Reposted
Bendigo Writers Festival, Meanjin, now Adelaide Writers … powerful vested interests would rather destroy the cultural institutions they are supposedly responsible for than allow certain voices to be heard
Adelaide Festival board facing a stark choice: Are they willing to sacrifice the entire festival to prevent a single Palestinian-Australian author from speaking?
January 9, 2026 at 1:41 AM
Bendigo Writers Festival, Meanjin, now Adelaide Writers … powerful vested interests would rather destroy the cultural institutions they are supposedly responsible for than allow certain voices to be heard
Reposted
Richard Flanagan on point: "But with this act of utter folly and appalling weakness, the Adelaide Festival board – and the politicians who direct it – have, by scapegoating a Palestinian writer, now destroyed Adelaide Writers Week for the foreseeable future..." www.smh.com.au/national/if-...
If Tony Abbott is welcome at Adelaide Writers’ Week, Randa Abdel-Fattah should be too
Australia’s best writers festival could collapse within days as international and local writers boycott it in protest at the removal of Randa Abdel-Fattah.
www.smh.com.au
January 9, 2026 at 7:55 AM
Reposted
The list of writers now boycotting the #Adelaide Writers Festival grows and grows… #Australia
www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...
www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...
Almost 50 writers boycott Adelaide festival after it dumps pro-Palestine academic Randa Abdel-Fattah
Helen Garner and Miles Franklin winner Michelle de Kretser among 47 people who have pulled out of annual writers’ festival to protest Abdel-Fattah’s axing
www.theguardian.com
January 9, 2026 at 7:39 AM
The list of writers now boycotting the #Adelaide Writers Festival grows and grows… #Australia
www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...
www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...
Reposted
Adelaide Writers Festival is collapsing after organisers cancelled a Palestinian Australian author, fearing her attendance may upset someone, and now the list of writers boycotting the event has become substantial. I wonder if the entire festival will be called off? #Australia
Writers withdrawing from Adelaide now also includes Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, according to Artshub. Also internationals Percival Everett and Vincenzo Latronico.
www.artshub.com.au/news/news/ad...
www.artshub.com.au/news/news/ad...
January 9, 2026 at 2:12 AM
Adelaide Writers Festival is collapsing after organisers cancelled a Palestinian Australian author, fearing her attendance may upset someone, and now the list of writers boycotting the event has become substantial. I wonder if the entire festival will be called off? #Australia
Reposted
Reposted
Always worth remembering that Rupert Murdoch will die having been the most malignant force in the world of the past 80 years.
One of the few of whom you can say the world would be better had he never been born.
One of the few of whom you can say the world would be better had he never been born.
Stuff like this is the reason why the good Lord blessed humanity with the gifts of tar and feathers
January 9, 2026 at 10:07 AM
Always worth remembering that Rupert Murdoch will die having been the most malignant force in the world of the past 80 years.
One of the few of whom you can say the world would be better had he never been born.
One of the few of whom you can say the world would be better had he never been born.
Reposted
Reposted
Apparently she has a culturally insensitive surname.
Absolutely disgraceful from the Adelaide Festival.
I hope other participants reconsider their part in it.
I hope other participants reconsider their part in it.
January 8, 2026 at 2:12 AM
Apparently she has a culturally insensitive surname.
Reposted
Absolutely disgraceful.
The Adelaide Festival has cancelled Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from appearing.
The Adelaide Festival has cancelled Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from appearing.
January 8, 2026 at 2:53 AM
Absolutely disgraceful.
The Adelaide Festival has cancelled Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from appearing.
The Adelaide Festival has cancelled Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from appearing.
Reposted
Zionist are a hate group.
Any Royal Commission needs to as a priority look into how the Israeli govt is interfering into Australia domestic politics.
Any Royal Commission needs to as a priority look into how the Israeli govt is interfering into Australia domestic politics.
Absolutely disgraceful.
The Adelaide Festival has cancelled Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from appearing.
The Adelaide Festival has cancelled Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from appearing.
January 8, 2026 at 2:55 AM
Zionist are a hate group.
Any Royal Commission needs to as a priority look into how the Israeli govt is interfering into Australia domestic politics.
Any Royal Commission needs to as a priority look into how the Israeli govt is interfering into Australia domestic politics.