Who will think of the Telethon kids now Kerry Stokes’ influence is waning?

Former prime minister Scott Morrison is one of a long list of PMs who have trekked to Telethon to keep Kerry Stokes happy. Picture: Adam Taylor

Won’t someone think of the children? That’s the question floating around Perth circles in the wake of the news that Kerry Stokes will finally relinquish his controlling grip on Seven West Media.

Forgot the media assets, to be merged with Southern Cross. The received wisdom is that Ryan Stokes will sell down in time, and without his father around to kybosh any move to sell off his beloved local newspaper, the beancounters in Southern Cross headquarters will flog off The West Australian at the first opportunity.

No, the real question facing Perth’s glitterati is what will happen to the annual Channel 7 Telethon?

Like free-to-air television itself, similar events have died a slow death across the world.

The glitz and glamour of C-grade celebrities, the tired eyes of school dance groups, the woeful jokes of the ageing comedians that draw the early morning shifts on tele – all have lost their charm for most audiences.

WA media mogul Kerry Stokes. Picture: Philip Gostelow

But not in Perth, where the annual event raised $88m for children’s charities last year, and is closing on $700m since it was founded in 1968.

With Kerry Stokes to step down as the Seven West Media (SWM) chairman in February, next month’s event will be the last he hosts as the state’s most powerful media figure.

Because there’s no doubt that Stokes is Telethon’s ageing heart. As chairman of SWM it has become not just a vehicle to raise cash for worthy children’s causes, but a symbol of the power the media magnate wields in his hometown, through the biggest television network in WA and the state’s only daily paper.

Stokes’ love for Telethon is the stuff of legend. It’s long been said that a generous donation is the easiest way to smooth over troubled waters with the media and mining magnate. Or the reverse, should a perception arise that the charitable spirit is lacking.

Kerry Stokes with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: Philip Gostelow

Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and then-opposition leader Peter Dutton made the trek across the Nullarbor to the annual (invitation only) Telethon Ball in 2024, ahead of this year’s federal election. Woe betide a state political leader that fails to turn up, cheque in hand.

It’s one of the few compulsory annual events for both BHP and Rio Tinto iron ore bosses, along with every other senior corporate leader in the state – or those that do business with it. New Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson jumped on a plane last year, topping up one of the auction items with additional tickets.

Even at the height of his feud with The West Australian in 2023, Andrew Forrest still made time to attend the Telethon Ball.

And then there’s the dinner hosted by Stokes for the WA state cabinet in his own home, attended last year by Premier Roger Cook along with a host of his senior ministers, as a thanks for their Telethon support. It’s the kind of access other business leaders would pay big money to have – but in this case it’s the state government cutting the cheque.

So integral is Stokes’ media control to the event, Margin Call hears that Seven rolled responsibility for looking after Telethon into the job of the station’s Perth news director, last time it advertised for the role.

Much to the dismay of prospective applicants, we hear.

But some of that may soon end, as Stokes relinquishes control of his media empire.

There’s no suggestion, of course, that either he or wife Christine Simpson Stokes will step away from Telethon or the work that it does.

The then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull getting in the Telethon spirit. Picture: AAP

But without someone of his influence to watch over every corporate cheque, harass and harangue, and keep tabs on the generosity of WA’s good and great, will it ever be the same again?

There is, of course, another theory around the future of the merger, for those that don’t subscribe to the view that Ryan Stokes wants to be rid of his dad’s media empire as soon as he can possibly manage it.

The Stokes family will emerge from the deal with Southern Cross owning about 20 per cent of the combined group.

Stand by the traditional playbook and creep up the register the allowed 3 per cent every six months, and they could be back above 30 per cent – and in effective control - within a couple of years ...