Malinauskas Makes It Up To Heartbroken Writers Festival Attendees With Free Tickets To Saudi-Backed LIV Golf Extravaganza!

Malinauskas Makes It Up To Heartbroken Writers Festival Attendees With Free Tickets To Saudi-Backed LIV Golf Extravaganza!

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor CONTACT

The fall-out of the Adelaide Writers Festival boycott continues today, days after one of the biggest events on the Australian cultural calendar was cancelled for 2026.

South Australian Premier, Peter Malinauskas now expected to be taken to court over his involvement in the Festival board's decision to cancel the appearance of Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah at AWW in the wake of heightened ethnoreligious tensions and rushed changes to hate speech laws.

The exclusion of Randa Abdel-Fattah, on the grounds of certain comments she had made about the conflict in the Middle East, resulted in over 180 Australian and international authors boycotting the event in solidarity.

The Premier stands by his actions, but says he does feel bad for the ticketholders, and plans to make it up to them.

"It's a shame things unfolded the way they did"

"The Writers Festival is always a bit of fun. But we've got plenty of other exciting things happening in Adelaide this year"

The Premier then went on to explain that, in his opinion, the only thing better than listening to authors interview other authors about the work of other authors - is high-octane professional golf!

"I'll be making sure anyone who had tickets booked to the writers festival will receive a free day pass to the 2026 LIV golf tournament at the Grange!"

LIV Golf is financed by the Public Investment Fund, which is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. A certain faction of lefties, but not the same ones that were boycotting the Writer's Festival, claim that these kinds of high-octane golfing tournaments are nothing but a thinly-veiled sportswashing campaign by the Saudi monarchy to improve its public image.

In the two years since it's conception, LIV Golf has grown to be one of the most rowdy sporting events in the world. With thousands of excitable fans singing Sweet Caroline and waving their shirts over their heads.

Malinauskas says nobody can accuse him of anti-Arab sentiment, given his role as a champion of the Saudi-backed tournament, and has invited all of the boycotting authors to join in for some free speech over a schooner at the 19th.

It is not known if the resin-jewelry bookworms of Adelaide will respond to this offer of tickets with as much excitement as the 350 different bucks parties that will be arriving at the city's airport on the 12th of February.

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