Andrew Forrest accuses Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media of bias over trucking stoush as $1bn property deal collapses
Andrew Forrest has doubled down on his criticism of Kerry Stokes’ Seven West Media coverage, with their $1bn property joint venture now understood to be on the verge of collapse.
Andrew Forrest appealed directly to fellow billionaire Kerry Stokes about the reporting by Seven West Media’s Perth newspaper of Fortescue Metals Group, which Dr Forrest describes as “vengeful” and having to potential to harm Mr Stokes’ “legacy”.
In an extraordinary attack, Dr Forrest doubled down on his criticism of Mr Stokes, The West newspaper and the wider Stokes family’s Seven Group’s mining truck business that begun with a stinging video to all Fortescue staff members and continued when the Fortescue executive chairman announced his company’s profit results.
It also emerged that a $1bn property joint venture between Dr Forrest and Mr Stokes’ private business empires were set to undertake at the East Perth Power Station has collapsed, as first revealed by The Australian online on Wednesday.
Dr Forrest Seven West Media of backing fellow billionaire Kerry Stokes’ so-called “narrow self-seeking commercial interests” in its coverage of Fortescue, as a brawl over Fortescue’s plans to build its own trucking business spills over.
In a message to Fortescue staff this week, Dr Forrest said The West Australian’s coverage of Fortescue Metals Group had been “biased, inflammatory and above all inaccurate”, linking its coverage Fortescue’s commercial relationship with a competitor for Mr Stokes’ Caterpillar business.
Dr Forrest continued the attack in an interview with The Australian, claiming a personal approach to Mr Stokes had fallen on deaf ears.
“I had a long discussion with Kerry a while ago, that I didn’t feel his extremely negative reporting would look good on his legacy. And he promised to look into it,” Dr Forrest said.
“That was our last conversation. The reporting if anything got worse, vengeful, vexatious, commercially-driven.”
Mr Stokes is the chairman of Seven West Media, which owns The West Australian newspaper. His family companies also control about 57 per cent of Seven Group Holdings, which owns Caterpillar dealership Westrac.
The comments made by Dr Forrest are the second stoush he has found himself with another billionaire in a matter of weeks. He and Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes have fallen out over the future of the $30bn Sun Cable power transmission project that led to it being placed into voluntary administration in January.
Dr Forrest gad delivered his video address to staff regarding Seven West Media against the backdrop of a rolling series of images of critical headlines in The West, most recently over charges laid against Fortescue for failing to hand over documents relating to sexual harassment cases to WorkSafe WA.
The video also included images of Liebherr trucks, a rival equipment manufacturer that is partnering with Fortescue to deliver 120 “green” haul trucks for the company’s mine sites, using batteries or hydrogen fuel cells instead of diesel.
“I remain eternally grateful that we are doing this for the future of all our children,” Dr Forrest told his staff in the video.
“Every child in the world is directly threatened by climate change. Those who refuse to act, or worse, use media to attack those who are acting, history will judge them.”
In response, Seven Group managing director Ryan Stokes told The Australian that the “decision on 50 per cent of their (Fortescue’s) truck fleet was (made) more than 12 months ago. Yes, it is disappointing – as it is to lose any deal – but we have been actively engaged on current and future deals. We remain steadfast in our commitment to support them.”
On Wednesday, Dr Forrest said Caterpillar had made clear it would not be able to bring pollution free trucks into the mining industry until 2030 and he had “made really clear if they don’t change their stance” he would bring his own trucks in, referring to the Liebherr deal.
“That is a direct business threat … to Caterpillar. I’m very happy to speak to the Stokes family and keep them really busy and that they too can profit and enjoy distributing the trucks we will be responsible for,” Dr Forrest added, while explaining Fortescue would refit the Liebherr trucks to his green specifications.
In the video this week, Dr Forrest defended Fortescue’s decision not to hand over documents to WorkSafe – now reversed – saying the company had been trying to protect the confidentiality of its staff.
“The West’s commentary on this and many other matters has been biased, inflammatory and above all, inaccurate. This could well be driven by narrow self-seeking commercial interest, which does not support the steps we have all taken to make polluting mobile equipment history,” he said.
Ryan Stokes said Seven Group and Westrac consider Fortescue “one of our most important and highly valued customers, we will do anything to support them in their mining and broader ambitions. We value the relationship we have throughout the organisation. “
In regards to the articles about Fortescue recently published in The West, Ryan Stokes said: “As far as Seven West Media goes, editorial decisions are completely independent as you would expect.”
While the matter may not be linked to Dr Forrest’s comments about The West’s coverage of Fortescue, the joint venture between Dr Forrest’s Tattarang and Mr Stokes’ Australian Capital Equity for a huge revamp of the prime parcel of Perth riverfront land at the old East Perth Power Station may not go ahead.
Their exclusive period to finalise the purchase of the power station and surrounding land was to expire in March. The state government has already started spending millions of dollars preparing the site, which may now be undertaken only by Tattarang.
In the video to staff this week, Fortescue Future Industries boss Mark Hutchinson also joined the attack on Mr Stokes’ newspaper, saying that the oil and gas industry – in which Mr Stokes also has a significant interest, though Seven Group’s stake in Beach Energy – was defending its commercial interests by attacking the company.
“We are taking on climate change here and the oil and gas industry and those with vested interests in supplying equipment that rely on fossil fuels will go on the attack through any media, including the press, to defend their commercial interests,” Mr Hutchinson said.
In addition to buying haul trucks from Liebherr, Fortescue has talked about using the relationship to commercialise technology developed in its Williams Advanced Engineering business to diversify away from mining, potentially posing a direct challenge to Caterpillar, given the moves by other major mining companies to move away from diesel trucks.
