Authors who did not withdraw from this year’s Adelaide Writers’ Week will be paid $250, honouring lost income from book sales, the new Adelaide Festival board has confirmed.

They include former prime minister Tony Abbott, high-profile financial journalist Joe Aston, Blanche d’Apluget (the widow of Bob Hawke) and former NSW premier Bob Carr.

They are among a handful of writers who remained after the annual Writers’ Week was cancelled for 2026 when about 180 authors withdrew after the Adelaide Festival last week removed Palestinian-Australian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the lineup.

The news comes as the board’s new chair Judy Potter, who also previously held the role from 2016 to 2023, fronted the press on Thursday after her appointment earlier this week.

Also on Thursday, the Adelaide Festival board released a statement  apologising “unreservedly for the harm the Adelaide Festival Corporation has caused” to cancelled Abdel-Fattah.

The board also invited Abdel-Fattah to speak at next year’s Writers’ Week. It retracted the former board’s January 8 statement, which said it would be “culturally insensitive” for her to participate this year.

Potter said the latest statement was “in the best interests of the festival”.

“We obviously believe this is the right thing to do at this time, that is why we have done it,” she said.

Asked if she was concerned about the reputational fallout from the week of controversy on the Adelaide Festival, Potter said: “Absolutely”.

“Adelaide Festival has always been a very brave festival, an international festival,” she said.

“It has had issues over the many years that has caused what like we’ve seen today, and it will continue to do that, but people want it for that.”

But “any news is good news”, Potter said.

“We’ve been getting a lot of coverage, even in the New York Times,” she said.

“I have confidence that 2026 will still be loved.”

New Adelaide Festival chair Judy Potter and executive director Julian Hobba. Photo: David Simmons

Potter said South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas was not consulted about the decision to invite Abdel-Fattah to the 2027 edition of Writers’ Week.

Malinauskas backed the former board’s decision to revoke its invitation to Abdel-Fattah. But he has consistently denied any political interference, saying he had “never intervened or directed the board, and nor should I, in fact, as a matter of law, I can’t”.

Abdel-Fattah this week launched defamation action against Malinauskas over his comments about her ban from this year’s Writers’ Week, which sparked a week of controversy and its eventual cancellation.

On Thursday, Potter stressed Adelaide Festival was a “separate legal entity”.

“We make the decision. That is the reality of the situation. We do not seek advice. We take it that we have been given these roles; we are the custodians. I have been through this before, and I’ve acted the same way every time,” Potter said.

A new Writers’ Week director will be appointed “very soon after the 2026 festival”, Potter said.