Steve Price: Australia Correspondent on the cancellation of Tenacious D's remaining Australasian tour

Tenacious D's remaining Australasian shows have been cancelled.  

After being presented a birthday cake and asked to make a wish, band member Kyle Gass said "don't miss Trump next time".  

He's since apologised on social media and fellow band-mate Jack Black says he was blindsided by the comment.  

Australian correspondent Steve Price told Mike Hosking Jack Black laughed at the comment. 

He said that the sooner Black and his mate Gass get out of the country, the better they’ll all be. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In Australia, Steve Price, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Good there.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Tell you what this c if emma you thing. I mean,
the bloke who got pinged and is gone, and what's
unfolded in the last forty eight hours since we last talked,
I find astonishing. Is it as astonishing in Australia or not.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
We all knew what was going on, and it was,
but that's what I find astonishing. Well, when I say we,
the Labor Party, certainly state branches of the Labor Party
and probably even federal Labor knew that this union was
pulling on corruption. I mean it's historical. I've written about

(00:40):
it in Colins forever, but no one ever did anything
about it until this nine newspaper sixty minutes Australia investigation.
What they did is classical journalism, Mike. They pulled it
all together. I mean, there were strands here, strands there,
things happening in Melbourne, things happening in Sydney, and they
put it all together. They did a tremendous job on it,

(01:00):
and they've just splashed it out there with pictures, including
today a new vision from a police camera hidden in
a ceiling of the cfmu's Sydney office. Now this is
allegedly captured the New South Wales construction boss Darren Greenfield.
I mean this is straight out of a Hollywood movie,
being past a five bundle of cash, five thousand dollars

(01:22):
under a table. Now, this was a suspected kickback deal
traded for union backing. It was filmed in June twenty twenty,
so it's historical. As I said, it's been going on forever.
Appears to show a building company owner seeking union support.
What does that mean? It says, well, if I give
you some money, where you make sure your union makes
look after me while we're building this block of flats.

(01:45):
I mean I'm paraphrasing there, but that's what it means.
Ten minutes later, the camera captures images of this Greenfield
character allegedly putting that cash in his desk draw. Now
it was part of a joint New South Wales Police
an AFP investigation. He was charged in September twenty twenty one.
Those charges are still pending. They haven't been tested before

(02:06):
the courts. His son, Michael Greenfield, is the CFM he
used assistant secretary. He was also charged. Now these people
are still in those positions and even though the head
of the act US said on Monday anyone charged should
stand down pending the examination of those charges, that's not happen. Now.
The Premiere of Victoria just sent to Allen, who's married

(02:28):
to an ex cf you member. She was in charge
of all of those big bill projects where the union
had their fingers stuck all over them. Now and it
goes all the way to the federal ALP because of
the dollar cash donations that they have taken over the year.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Exactly, so you get so the letter directors of an
indigenous labor higher firm they write to just cin to
Ellen when she's Victoria's infrastructure minister. They wait a year,
she doesn't reply. In the ensuing period, they get frustrated
and send it to Elbow. Elber doesn't reply. I mean,
how donkey deeper the Labour Party in this.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
I know, it's just extraordinary. And the Premier has come
out twice now. Day one she was sort of thinking about,
you know, scanning people down. Day two she's launched some
sort of investigation. This will go nowhere. It'll end up
being like the examination to what Daniel Andrews did during COVID.
People won't remember what happened, and you know it'll cost me.

(03:27):
We've had two Royal commissions into the trade union movement
in general in this country under the Howard government and
then under the Morrison government, which costs millions of dollars,
and nothing ever happened done.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Really, is that in part why Dutton and the Coalition
did what they did yesterday in the polls. This is
a culmination of stuff that's banking up against the government.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
It's probably more to do with cost of living and
the debate over renewable energy, in whether going all renewables
will keep the lights on. I think that's probably the situation.
But the Labor primary vote, that's that's the key here.
It's down to twenty percent, and you can't win an
election with the primary vote of twenty eight percent, even
with our preferential voting system. Labor and the Coalition of

(04:08):
fifty to fifty and fifty five percent of people say
cost of living is the main issue, and thirty percent
of people piled in that result poll, so they're paying
more a month than they're actually earning. Now that's a
frightening statistic in any country.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Having said that, Elbow can't go early on twenty eight, Kenny.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
He can't. And so you know, I know, I flip
flop on this, but it's increasingly looking like the old
adage you only go to an election when you think
you can win it. Well, I don't think they can
win it on twenty eight. I don't think they can
win it with a penny interest rate rise. And so
we might be now looking at sometime next May.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Exactly do you reckon Jack Black was really blindsided or
do you think that's just the best he can do
in a very difficult set of circumstances.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
He wasn't blind sided him. And you look at the
vision this bloke, Kyle gas Gas is a very prepriate
surname for it. Easy one who said, you know, I
don't miss Trump next time? And Jack Black laughs. So
the Newcastle concert was postponed yesterday. Now we know the
whole tour has been canceled. Jack's going, Oh, it's terrible,

(05:15):
it's horrible. We should never have said this. I don't
endorse hate speech. I mean, please give me a bloat break.
The bloke was one of the kiaks at a Joe
Biden fundraising event where George Clooney organized a few weeks ago.
I mean the serner Jack Black and his mate Gas
get out of the country the better will all be.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
See you next week. Make Phil Steve Price out of
Australia for us this morning.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
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