Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah says her lawyers have launched defamation proceedings against South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas following his public commentary about her scheduled appearance at Adelaide Writers’ Week.
In a social media post, Abdel-Fattah said her lawyers on Wednesday issued a concerns notice on Mr Malinauskas under the Defamation Act.
She described the premier’s commentary as a “vicious personal assault”.
Abdel-Fattah was removed from the Adelaide Writers’ Week line-up last week — a controversial decision that led to the board’s resignation and the cancellation of the event.
“For the past week since I was cancelled by the Adelaide Festival Board, the South [Australian] Premier Peter Malinauskas has made many public statements about me and my character,” she wrote in her statement today.
“We have never met and he has never attempted to contact me.
“Yesterday Mr Malinauskas went even further. He made a public statement. This was a vicious personal assault on me, a private citizen, by the highest public official in South Australia. It was defamatory and it terrified me.
“Enough is enough. I am a human being, not a punching bag. My lawyers have today issued a concerns notice under the Defamation Act on Peter Malinauskas, This is his opportunity to undo some of the harm he has inflicted and stop punching down.”
The action is in response to comments made by Mr Malinauskas at a press conference on Tuesday in which he asked reporters to imagine if a “far-right Zionist walked into a Sydney mosque and murdered 15 people”.
“Can you imagine that as premier of this state I would actively support a far-right Zionist going to Writers’ Week and speaking hateful rhetoric towards Islamic people,” he said.
“Of course I wouldn’t but the reverse has happened in this instance and I’m not going to support that either and I think that’s a reasonable position for me to have. It’s a view that I believe.”
Peter Malinauskas became emotional on Tuesday when questioned on a range of topics, including the festival and homophobia in sports. (ABC News)
Mr Malinauskas will speak at a press conference within the next hour.
Yesterday, during a press conference, the premier became emotional when journalists pressed him on a range of topics including AWW and allegations of homophobia against Adelaide United.
Following Abdel-Fattah’s removal from the AWW program, dozens of writers and at least one sponsor withdrew from the event.
By Sunday, three board members and its chair had quit.
The AWW director Louise Adler, who is on the Jewish Council of Australia’s advisory committee and is the daughter of Holocaust survivors, issued her resignation on Tuesday and the participants who pulled out increased to more than 180.
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