00:01Palestinian Australian author Dr Randa Abdel Fattah has been confirmed that she'll be speaking at two time slots at the
00:10Sydney Writers Festival in May.
00:12A statement from the festival's Chief Executive Brooke Webb and Artistic Director Anne Mossop says that Dr Abdel Fattah is
00:19a significant Sydney writer, adding the festival holds freedom of expression as a core value.
00:25This comes after Dr Abdel Fattah was uninvited from the Adelaide Writers Week, which was part of the Adelaide Festival
00:33after facing pressure from the South Australian government.
00:36The board of the festival released a statement last month saying it wasn't culturally sensitive to feature a Palestinian Australian
00:44author on the event so soon after the Bondi Beach terrorist attack.
00:48This sparked a boycott of most of the speakers, the board resigned and then the festival was cancelled altogether.
00:56When Dr Abdel Fattah was announced as a speaker at the Newcastle Writers Festival, Premier Chris Minns came out and
01:02said the idea to include the author on the festival's bill was crazy.
01:07We haven't heard anything yet from him today, but we have heard from the Minister Rose Jackson, who's the Minister
01:14for Housing, who urged organisers of events like the Sydney Writers Festival to be wary of the sensitivities that are
01:22around in the state at the moment after everything that's happened across the state.
01:28The 9thake Pleistocent.
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