Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was the best man at Seven’s Ryan Stokes’ 2016 wedding and Mr Stokes company Seven West Media announced on Friday (12/11/21) that they had received a total of $47 million over the last 2 years in taxpayer funded Jobkeeper payments. It helps explain why Josh Frydenberg has allowed an estimated $20 billion to $40 billion to be ripped off the Australian public via the rorting of Jobkeeper by the very rich.
Seven West Media is only one company that Ryan Stokes controls, on behalf of his father Kerry Stokes, so the true figure that Ryan and Kerry have profited for their companies from Jobkeeper could be anywhere up to $200 million or more is my estimate when you look at the size and diversity of the parent company Seven Group. (Click here to read more)
A company the size of Seven was meant to have a reduction in revenue of over 50% to be eligible for Jobkeeper but Seven West Media announced only 2 weeks ago they are paying $132 million in cash to buy regional broadcaster Prime Media which doesn’t sound like a company that lost over 50% of its revenue over the last 2 years. (Click here to read more)
The $47 million had been known since September but the market was waiting to see how much Seven would payback and the amount was a big fat zero which explains why Seven announced it at 3.55pm on a Friday. Business journalist Stephen Mayne Tweeted the below:
How many other close friends of Josh Frydenberg profited from Jobkeeper? Should Josh Frydenberg have been forced to declare his close personal friendships and how much they have profited from Jobkeeper? I think Frydenberg should given how much of a rort it has been.
Below is Ryan Stokes on the far left on his wedding day in 2016 and on the far right is his best man and federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
You have to wonder if Ryan Stokes helped Josh Frydenberg draft the Jobkeeper scam.
Update: I have just published the below video on YouTube titled: Australia’s biggest financial fraud: Jobkeeper. Overseen by Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
Kerry and Ryan Stokes have a long history of bludging off the taxpayer
One of the ways the rich get richer is by bleeding every cent they can from the government which Jobkeeper is a perfect example.
Another example is Kerry Stokes pouring hundreds of $millions down the drain for the Australian War Memorial in effect building a memorial for himself which would be better spent on returned soldiers which Stokes doesn’t seem to care about at all.
The SMH reported in 2020 in an article titled “Ryan Stokes might be mates with the Treasurer but his dad did better in the budget”
Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes can certainly claim to be a budget winner. The Australian War Memorial, which he chairs, emerged as one of the biggest winners on budget night, securing a $52 million funding boost for the coming financial year, to $117 million.
The Canberra museum will receive another $102 million in the year after that, and another $85 million in 2023-2024, a substantial bump on the government’s current capital works contribution of $65 million a year. The memorial is also nearing the sod-turning on an ambitious – and contentious – $500 million revamp, which Stokes has personally guaranteed will not go over budget. (Click here to read more)
Stokes gets an amount heading towards a $billion for the war memorial because it is his pet project but returned soldiers suffering post-traumatic stress disorder struggle to get the help they need. And then the Stokes’ get tens of $million in Jobkeeper and as I said above it could be as high as $200 million of more in Jobkeeper.
I have gone a bit off track because this article is meant to be about Jobkeeper, but it is easy to do when talking about the Stokes because they have their hand out all over the place for government cash.
Most Australian media have profited from Jobkeeper
Media reporter Tim Burrows published an article on Monday titled “JobKeeper: Half a billion reasons why the media industry owes Scott Morrison”
As the market was closing on Friday, Seven West Media became the last of the Australian headquartered ASX media companies to publish its JobKeeper numbers.
The JobKeeper disclosures became mandatory as part of a compromise during a failed push to force companies to give back the money if they did not need it after all.
With $137m already on the record, News Corp’s numbers still to come, and the unlisted companies numbers unavailable, support for the media sector amounted to more than half a billion dollars.
A lot of media owners have a lot to be grateful to prime minister Scott Morrison for. (Click here to read more)
It’s not just Ryan Stokes and Seven that have profited from Jobkeeper but other media companies have as well and the Liberal Party have bought themselves quite a few friends at the media companies which explains some of the media coverage of politics. But they have used taxpayer’s money to do it which is fraud by the government the same way they have fraudulently bought votes by pork barrelling.
I would like to see a Senate enquiry for Jobkeeper where the likes of Josh Frydenberg and Ryan Stokes are forced to give evidence.
In New Zealand, where they also a had a Jobkeeper program, if companies claimed Jobkeeper when they shouldn’t have then they had to pay the Jobkeeper back. In Australia the government has let the companies keep the Jobkeeper which is financial fraud by the government that has allowed many of their rich friends to get richer.
Where are all the old media companies writing about media companies rorting Jobkeeper? How many media companies wrote about Seven West Media announcing on Friday at 3.55pm that they had received $47 million in Jobkeeper but were refusing to pay any back? None! In Australia we have an old media that is bought and paid for by the government.
Please use Twitter, Facebook, email and the other buttons below and help promote this article.
Kangaroo Court of Australia is an independent website and is reliant on donations to keep publishing so please click on the Patreon button below and support independent journalism.
If you would like to support via PayPal use the button below or for other donation options click here to go to the Donations page.
Thank you for your support.
For the KCA t-shirt shop click here.
Categories: Josh Frydenberg, Ryan Stokes, Seven West Media
It is so cryptically important for our Democracy that we install a Ferderal ICAC our Parliamentary System is under Attack by criminal politician who rort Tax Payers Funds with impunity I believe this action is URGENT
How the hell do they get away with such fraudulent mis appropriation of taxpayers money?
Not bought and paid for by the government. Bought and paid for by the Liberal party with other people’s money.
It appears to me that this arrogant government if refrained in any way in fulfilling its ideological agendas just responds by forcing whatever it may be on Australians in worse ways. They just double down.
Under Turnbull and Morrison, and earlier, great efforts were made to try to bring in big tax cuts for corporations and big business in line with Arthur Laffer’s ‘trickle down’ neoliberal economic ‘theories’. (Laffer even visited parliament house during this earlier period). This theory written on the back of a restaurant napkin, was tried in the US and the UK under Regan and Thatcher with appalling results. The money did not trickle down to the middle and lower class income levels but trickled up to the richest individuals instead. This was accompanied by offshore accounts becoming fashionable as useful tax havens so paying tax could be literally avoided.
Any graph of the flow of wealth to the richest 1% since the 1980s verifies that their share of the money pool has increased significantly. Throughout the world it has been long said that the richest 1% own 50% of the world’s wealth, and in countries like the US it is now reduced to 0.6% who own the 50%. That’s why America has a huge poverty problem and extraordinary levels of homelessness with increasing amounts of people who work in jobs but cannot even afford to rent a house. More and more live in cars or makeshift shelter whilst working very hard every day. Yet it is a wealthy first world country.
It’s quite clear that Frydenberg still subscribes to this neoliberal “voodoo economics” theory (as George Bush senior called it) and I would allege that he has used the opportunity of Jobkeeper to give money away to big business inline with the same trickle down beliefs. It works out to be similar to tax cuts anyway. I would allege it to be Frydenberg’s neoliberal experiment at the expense of taxpayer’s pockets. He appears to be pinning Australia’s economic rebound post-pandemic on what other respected economic minds would call a failed theory.
Australia is also becoming a country with two levels of economy, and that extends to how the law is applied in that some elites appear to have impunity from the law while other lessor mortals don’t. It’s masters and slaves stuff.
Secondarily, given that money was directed at the commercial media, most of which made significant profits in the year they received it (news always sells, especially when there is a lot of fear going on), then it it could be alleged that it is a down payment on expecting certain responses from much of the main stream media to support the government’s views and opinions. It’s already in a pro-Liberal position anyway. Let’s also remember that much government advertising was also directed at the same media and this also adds to profits at the end of the day. Then there is the upcoming election advertising.
Conflict of interest? It seems quite obvious and in my view a very dangerous step in this country where the ABC is under constant attack and much effort is being made to suppress freedom of speech when it comes to any criticism of the same obfuscating government. Even American media is far more diverse and accepting of far more critical views of the US government.
Without independent media, and websites like the KCA, we would never know what is going on in this country as deliberate omission, fake news, and apologising for the government becomes the norm in Australian journalism, and individuals who criticise the government increasingly risk aggressive litigation.
Agree with all that George said. This country is so corrupt and people seem to be waking up to a lot of what the politicians do. It really is time to elect new people who have integrity. Something has to happen soon before there is nothing left to recover. Thanks KCA for all you do.
What Australia needs more than anything is to find a method to out both the labor and the lnp as they appear to be just as corrupt as one another if its not a sex scandal its money laundry6
I’ve just published a video on YouTube in relation to the above article which is here: https://youtu.be/pd3Xed_sa-g
So instead of complaining, why don’t we put some minor parties in to break up the cosy?
I’ve a feeling that public disillusionment might even overcome apathy & stupidity at the next general.
But then, maybe I’m just a silly old optimist.
Thank you for the good work you do. I am concerned with the lack of independence by our mainstream media and lack of honesty with our current crop of politicians. All they do is employ Lawyers when they are challenged. Being a politician is still just a job, not a god-given right to rule and squander.
IG the best method to my way of thinking would be for voters to take on the painstaking task of going through the senate section of ballot paper and pick out all the independents in the and vote them into the senate which I hope would break up the monopoly of both the labor and LNP have had in our hallowed halls o Parliament which hope fully add to keep the bastards honest.
And these political swine have the audacity to tittle themselves as “The Honourable”,,, 95% of them wouldn’t know honour if it bit them on the buttocks,,,until they get away with preferential voting them we are stuck with ones who couldn’t attract a big percentage of primary votes, then the swine who slide over the line on the preferences seem to win seats,,, in all other field first past the post WINS
In other Government bungles—-80 y.o. dementia pensioner has payment withheld-three times by Centrelink, and Federal prosecutor opposes paying mother and daughter held for four months in jail after faulty ADF/NSW Police tests allege importation of drugs. What a wonderful world we live in.
“And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. — John Dalberg-Acton (1834-1902),
Absolutely nothing surprises me with this shonkey mob
Ah the good old Stokes mob, that gets plenty and then wants to strip everything from the workers except of course their mates in senior positions within the company.
Yesterday they commenced an indefinite lock-out against the majority of workers from the West Australian Newspapers printing plant after they attempted to stand up for themselves against Chief Operating Officer Phil O’Toole by holding a 4 hour work stoppage.
The company is constantly trying to remove conditions and citing unsustainable costs with the current EBA, yet these same workers in good faith gave up 17% of their pay for 11months during Covid to help support the company through this period, all the while SWM were receiving job keeper payments.
Note it was only production staff employed under the EBA that gave up 17% pay for 11months, the rest had a 3months reduction in pay.
There has been numerous job redundancies with production staff over the last few years to “reduce” costs, all the remaining staff want is to keep hold of their current condition’s, but even that is to much for this current management.
Their end game appears to be cheaper redundancies of all existing EBA full time staff and a full roster with casual workers.