The promoter of Candace Owens\u2019 blocked Australian tour has gone into liquidation, with ticketholders still waiting for refunds more than a year later.<\/p>\n
Rocksman, the insolvent tour promoter, has repeatedly promised all ticketholders will be refunded for the American conservative commentator\u2019s tour, after leaving some waiting more than a year for repayments.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s immigration minister, Tony Burke<\/a>, denied Owens\u2019 visa weeks before her planned speaking tours of Australia and New Zealand in 2024 on the grounds she could incite discord.<\/p>\n Owens rose to fame while working with Turning Point USA<\/a> but has fallen out with the rightwing group formed by Charlie Kirk for suggesting his death was an Israeli plot<\/a>. She is separately being sued for defamation in the US by Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron after claiming the French president\u2019s wife was born a man<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n Owens challenged the visa denial<\/a> but in October Australia\u2019s high court unanimously backed the government\u2019s 2024 decision, dashing Rocksman\u2019s suggestion the tour would return.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Rocksman said the cancellation seriously affected the company\u2019s touring arm, which faced significant upfront costs and would only see revenue if events proceeded.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cancellation, combined with existing tax obligations, created a real risk that the company could enter an insolvent trading period if it continued operating without restructuring,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The promoter declared insolvency in December. Documents filed with the corporate regulator show it had a $68,395.54 debt to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and no assets other than a bank account of an undeclared value.<\/p>\n It is unlikely any money will be paid to those owed by Rocksman, according to its liquidator, David Sampson of BPS Resolved. An ATO spokesperson said the agency would pursue the recovery of outstanding tax debts through the liquidation process.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are taking actions to ensure we collect tax in accordance with the law,\u201d they said. \u201cNot paying tax affects everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Consumer agencies in New South Wales, Queensland and New Zealand said they had received complaints from ticketholders awaiting refunds. NSW Fair Trading advised consumers to contact the liquidator and join the list of creditors owed by Rocksman.<\/p>\n Refunds for tickets, which started at $95, were yet to be processed despite Rocksman saying they would be out by the end of November.<\/p>\n The spokesperson said that advice was shared in good faith based on available information and all ticketholders would still be repaid as refund responsibility had moved to a separate consolidated entity.<\/p>\n Owens\u2019 team has previously rejected responsibility for tour refunds. Contacted for comment, an AI agent on behalf of Owens said Rocksman would generally be responsible for refunds.<\/p>\n The immigration minister this week stood by his cancellation of Owens\u2019 visa, saying she could have delayed selling tickets or provided immediate refunds.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as the decision was made I said I hoped she had a good refund policy,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n \u201cCandace Owens has even treated her own supporters with contempt. They are the latest addition to a long list of people her business model manages to offend.\u201d<\/p>\n Rocksman was founded as marketing agency in 2022, directed by Sydney man George Zacharia. Damien Costas, an experienced promoter, helped Rocksman move into touring in early 2024 but was not involved in Owens\u2019 visit, Rocksman\u2019s spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Zacharia and Costas had previously collaborated on other Australian speaking tours, including for rightwing UK politician Nigel Farage in 2022, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Zacharia and Costas both declined to comment. Costas told Guardian Australia in 2019 he \u201cbasically invented\u201d rightwing speaking tours as a profitable and high-profile business in Australia.<\/p>\n Costas is a former publisher of Penthouse Australia who rose to national prominence arranging tours for rightwing commentators including <\/a>Farage in 2018 and Milo Yiannopoulos. A later Penthouse-backed tour fell through after <\/a>Yiannopoulos\u2019 visa was cancelled and British far-right activist Tommy Robinson and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes were denied visas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The promoter of Candace Owens\u2019 blocked Australian tour has gone into liquidation, with ticketholders still waiting for refunds…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":501797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-501796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115860630708350900","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}