The City of Perth went against its own policy and waived more than $60,000 in fees for Seven West Media to run a major mining conference despite already granting $60,000 to the Kerry Stokes-controlled media business.

Seven made a late request asking the council to waive or reduce venue hire fees for parts of its Resources Technology Showcase in inner-city Perth. The waiver was for the WesTrac activation at the event, known colloquially by Perth locals as “Stokesfest”, between March 31 and April 4. It was opened by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.