Typical Malinauskas Voter In A State Of Pure Rage Over Premier's Attack On The Sanctity Of Australian Literature

Typical Malinauskas Voter In A State Of Pure Rage Over Premier's Attack On The Sanctity Of Australian Literature

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor CONTACT

The blazing binfire surrounding Peter Malinauskas and the Adelaide Writer's Festival has had unleaded petrol poured over it this morning, as the South Australian Premier receives a legal notice from the writer at the heart of the Adelaide Writers’ Week brouhaha.

Lawyers acting for Randa Abdel-Fattah have served a formal concerns notice for defamation, suggesting the fallout from her being blacklisted from the since cancelled Adelaide Writer's Festival has caused enough the writer enough grief to take it to court.

The notice follows a week of escalating drama that saw the vast majority of writers scheduled to appear at the AWW boycott the event in protest of a Palestinian author being un-invited to the event in the wake of increased ethno-religious tensions both in the Middle East and in Australian.

It is alleged that the orders to drop Randa Abdel-Fattah from the event's line-up came directly from the Premier's office.

Since the mass walk-out of writers, the vast majority of the Adelaide Festival board has also resigned, including the director - Louise Adler.

This signals the first real body blow for South Australian Labor Premier's brand, after winning consecutive state elections with such wide margins that the Liberal Opposition has been well and truly castrated with less only 13 seats in the lower house.

After being elected to power by a landslide in 2022, Malinauskas has redefined what it means to be to a South Australian Labor voter - and has cast a much wider net that his Federal colleagues by winning back working class voters through his close ties to the union movement and his own blue collar immigrant origin story as a former Woolies trolley boy.

However, it's hard to know if Malinauskas's leadership will be able to survive the fall-out from the second biggest scandal in the Australian literary world this week.

"I'm fucken ropeable" says former die-hard Malinauskas voter, Craig Moore (57, panel beater, Elizabeth).

"I've had a gutful. How dare this bloody premier take it upon himself to intervene in the curation of one of our state's premiere fucken cultural events. This is an attack on the sanctity of Australian literature"

"He's lost my vote, that's for sure. Good night, and good luck ya fucken putrid censorship agent"

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