Billionaires Kerry Stokes and Gina Rinehart now control Southern Cross Media, which owns the Seven Network, Triple M radio network and The West Australian newspaper, with only 33% of shares.

It is even worse if Gina Rinehart, who controls 10% of shares, is not supporting Kerry Stokes in the boardroom. Because that would mean Kerry Stokes is controlling Southern Cross Media with just his 23% shareholding.

Kerry Stokes and Gina Rinehart’s motivation for controlling media in Australia is not for the benefit of the Australian public.

Their motivation is because they are 2 of the biggest beneficiaries of government welfare the country has ever seen, and they want to keep it that way.

One example is Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group, which made $millions from the Jobkeeper fraud that allowed crooks to rip off the government $billions. I wrote about it in detail in 2021 in an article titled “Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg fraudulently gave his best mate, Seven’s Ryan Stokes, at least $47 million of the taxpayer funded Jobkeeper” which starts off:

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 the full article)

Another example is Gina Rinehart’s mining company, Hancock Prospecting, received $128 million in federal government diesel fuel rebates for one year. The diesel fule rebate was originally created for farmers, now 45% goes to mining; 12% to farmers (rest to transport, construction, manufacturing).

Owning a share in a media company helps make sure diesel fuel rebates keep flowing into the hands of Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting and fellow miner Kerry Stokes’s Seven Group. Controlling a media company also helps when you want a new mine approved or government grants for other purposes.

Kerry Stokes back controlling Seven

Kerry Stokes has been in media for decades:

“Starting in 1979, he began acquiring local television stations in Canberra, Adelaide and Perth, along with radio stations, and in 1996 he secured a nineteen percent stake in the Seven Network and its free-to-air television stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Since 2006, the Seven Network has formed one arm of Seven West Media, which incorporates West Australian Newspapers and various other online and publishing concerns.” (Click here to read more)

The old media has been dying for years, although at a slower rate than many people, including myself, thought they would.

The Kerry Stokes controlled Seven West Media merged with Southern Cross Media in January 2026 and left Stokes with just 20% of the shares, and I wrote in March 2026:

“Billionaire Kerry Stokes, who ran Seven West Media headfirst into the ground over a 30 year period by fraudulently using the company as his own cash cow, is no longer a media baron and that will have a positive impact on Australia’s media landscape.” (Click here to read more)

But somehow, in September 2026 Kerry Stokes’ son, Ryan Stokes, was announced as chair of Southern Cross Media.

The SMH reported (7/9/26) in relation to the Seven West Media and Sothern Cross Media merger:

The longtime controlling shareholders of Seven had their control of the company halved in the deal. Two weeks ago, the Stokes family bought back into the company for the first time since the transaction, with their Seven Group Holdings entity – which also owns mining equipment company WestTrac and machinery hire firm Coates – upping its stake in Southern Cross from 20.2 per cent to 23.2 per cent.

and:

“The family has re-emerged as the power behind the board, and in another six months, they could effectively control it by taking their shareholding beyond 25 percent.”

and:

“Former Stokes lieutenant Bruce McWilliam, who has emerged as a major shareholder with the financial backing of another Perth-based billionaire, Gina Rinehart.” (Click here to read more)

In recent years the Kerry Stokes controlled Seven West Media has had numerous scandals that should have been the end of Kerry Stokes controlling any media company.

There was Kerry Stokes fraudulently using Seven’s shareholders’ money to pay for Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation case against Nine, and when exposed, Stokes quickly transferred the cost to his own private company.

And Kerry Stokes’ Seven paying for sex workers and cocaine for Bruce Lehrmann as part of a deal for Lehrmann to do an interview with Seven.

What Gina Rinehart up to?

Gina Rinehart’s main benefit in owning shares in Southern Cross Media, which is struggling financially, is likely to influence the Western Australia state government which in turn influences the federal government.

Southern Cross Media’s ownership of the The West Australian, which is the only local daily newspaper in Perth, when added to Perth’s dominate TV station Channel 7 comes in handy when you are trying to influence politicians.

The reality is the old media are dying so Kerry Stokes and Gina Rinehart won’t get as much value out of owning Southern Cross Media as they once would have. But politicians don’t realise that, or don’t care, and will still jump when they say so.

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