Bendigo Writers Festival has questions to answer over ‘untenable’ code of conduct for authors

Around 20 writers, including prominent Palestine advocate Randa Abdel-Fattah and Stella Prize winners Evelyn Araluen, Clare Wright and Jess Hill, have reportedly withdrawn from Bendigo Writers Festival, which opens today.

They are protesting an email sent by organisers on August 13, requiring authors appearing at events sponsored by La Trobe University to comply with a code of conduct containing a controversial definition of antisemitism. The code also enjoins all speakers to “avoid language or topics that could be considered inflammatory, divisive or disrespectful”.

A festival spokesperson told the ABC 11 sessions had been cancelled. The festival, she said, encouraged discussions on issues such as the Israel-Gaza war. “We just want to make sure those really, really important conversations happen in a safe way.” She noted that “we are living in an incredibly risk averse environment”.

Abdel-Fattah is the author of 12 books for children and young adults. In her withdrawal email, she writes that the universities’ definition of antisemitism “directly infringes on my right to speak as a Palestinian, as well as my freedom of speech and academic freedom”. She continues:

At a time when journalists are being permanently silenced by Israel’s genocidal forces, it is incomprehensible that a writers’ festival should also seek to silence Palestinian voices.

The Bendigo festival has questions to answer about its code of conduct and the impact on freedom of speech, some of which have been raised by the Human Rights Law Centre in a letter asking for “urgent clarification”.

To begin with: who is to decide, and on what criteria, whether language or topics are inflammatory, divisive or disrespectful? A glance at the program shows there is plenty of scope for rows about this.

And what binds the festival to the Universities Australia definition of antisemitism? Was it a condition of La Trobe’s sponsorship of four panels? If so, when was that condition imposed?

There are many speakers on the program other than those on the La Trobe panels. In the present climate, where Australia has announced for the first time its recognition of a Palestinian state and the war continues unabated, it would be astonishing if this issue did not figure in many of the festival’s forums. On what criteria will the festival decide any complaints of antisemitism that arise from those?

And why did the festival wait until two days before opening day to send out compliance notices to its speakers, leaving no time for discussion?

Infringing freedom of speech

Award-winning historian Clare Wright, a professor at La Trobe University, was a guest curator of the festival’s nine La Trobe Presents sessions. A source told Guardian Australia she withdrew: “for personal and professional reasons which include the code”.

Participants in these panels are required to comply with the university’s anti-racism plan, including its definitions of antisemitism and Islamophobia.

La Trobe’s Anti-Racism Action Plan is linked to in the code of conduct provided to writers. It cites the university’s adoption of the Universities Australia working definition of antisemitism, which reflects the definition developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Goorie and Koori poet Araluen is co-editor of Overland literary journal. In her withdrawal letter, she told festival organisers the antisemitism definition infringes her freedom of speech. Specifically, it infringes what she called her cultural duty as a First Nations woman to speak out against oppression, “which includes speaking out against Israel’s ongoing UN defined genocide of the Palestinian people”.

Jess Hill, a journalist and educator on coercive control, argues the primary reason for the code is to stop “people from criticising Israel, and making political statements about the genocide in Gaza”.

‘Potentially chilling effect’

The Universities Australia definition has been criticised as a means of suppressing criticism of Israel and of having a potentially chilling effect on educational speech.

Sarah Schwartz, legal director of the Human Rights Law Centre and executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, told festival organisers the centre had been approached by several concerned festival participants. In a letter, the centre asked for “urgent clarification” of the code of conduct and how it will be interpreted, and set out a list of topics that might fall foul of its provisions.

These include First Nations sovereignty, feminism and women’s rights, statements to the effect that Israel is committing crimes against Palestinians, and criticism of Zionism as an ideology.

The centre’s concerns are clearly grounded in reality: three of the four “La Trobe Presents” panels deal with issues of sovereignty and resistance, the death of loved ones, and violence against women.

Warring definitions

The Universities Australia definition of antisemitism (to which La Trobe refers) was developed as a result of an inquiry by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights into antisemitism on Australian university campuses.

In February 2025, it recommended Australian universities should adopt a clear definition of antisemitism that “aligns closely” with that of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

The alliance’s definition, developed in 2016, has been endorsed by the secretary-general of the United Nations. It has been adopted by governments, political parties, public agencies, universities and other bodies (including numerous Jewish organisations) in countries around the world.

However, a group of scholars working in the fields of antisemitism and related studies consider the alliance’s definition to be unclear in certain key respects and open to widely different interpretations. They responded by developing the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. They set out to clarify what antisemitism is and how it manifests, while at the same time protecting “a space for open debate about the vexed question of the future of Israel/Palestine”.

Whatever the relative merits of the two documents, the Universities Australia definition is the one in question at Bendigo. Along with the broader strictures in the festival’s code of conduct, it has led to the withdrawal of a significant number of speakers on free-speech grounds.

Read more: A new definition of antisemitism from Universities Australia is attracting criticism – two historians explain why

Festivals and controversy

A La Trobe University spokesperson acknowledged the decision of the writers who have withdrawn. But, they added: “La Trobe’s approach to combating racism is consistent with our commitment to academic freedom and freedom of speech.”

As a festival partner, La Trobe felt it needed to emphasise the importance of participants’ safety and wellbeing by introducing a code of conduct.

However, novelist Kate Mildenhall, who was to moderate a book club session about the nature of censorship in literature, said: “I have not, in my time, seen a code of conduct like this.” She called it “untenable” to go ahead if she couldn’t speak freely.

This is only the latest in a series of controversies surrounding writers’ festivals in Australia arising largely from the Gaza war. Since its outbreak in October 2023, they have engulfed Sydney Writers Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival, the Perth Festival’s Writers’ Weekend, the Sydney Opera House’s All About Women, and Adelaide Writers Week.

Last year, the chair of Sydney Writers Festival, Kathy Shand, a former co-publisher of the Australian Jewish News, resigned over concerns about the festival’s balancing of views on matters such as the Israel-Gaza war.

She said “freedom of expression cannot and should not be used as a justification to accept language and conversations that compromise the festival”. This followed the resignation of the deputy chair of the Melbourne Writers Festival board earlier in 2024, over a similar conflict.

Correction: an earlier version of this article misstated the number of La Trobe Presents sessions, guest curated by Clare Wright.