The Queensland government has announced the state’s literary awards will move from their current home at the State Library of Queensland to “an alternative provider” – along with the black&write! fellowships for emerging First Nations writers. The move has been framed in the language of safety and hate speech – and follows recent controversy over an award to a writer outspoken about Israel–Palestine.

A recent review into the State Library of Queensland’s awards programs was prompted by the withdrawal of a A$15,000 fellowship (hours before it was to be awarded) to Martu writer K.A. Ren Wyld, for a fiction manuscript on the Stolen Generations. The government’s concerns included a (since deleted) tweet praising former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a “martyr”.

“Creative diversity and robust debate are important, and central to the value of the arts, however, we’ve taken decisive action to make Queensland safer,” said last week’s statement by Minister for Education and the Arts John-Paul Langroek. He continued: “state-owned buildings will not be a platform for hate speech.”

In a letter to the library’s board last year, Langroek called Wyld’s comments “incompatible with the values of respect, unity and inclusion” expected of the State Library. He argued the award should not be presented in a state-owned venue. The library’s board responded by commissioning a review of the governance of its awards programs.

The review, by Martin Daubney KC, briefly acknowledges that excluding writers because of “controversial political statements” may raise difficult questions under Queensland’s human rights and anti-discrimination laws. But it does not resolve them.

It does recommend the board formulate and adopt a........

© The Conversation