FontCast

Imagine a time traveller arrives in Tasmania in 2018 after Will Hodgman had just been re-elected premier and described what we've seen over the past four years in Tasmanian politics. Would you ever believe them? That's the question host Brad Nowland poses to the FontCast team in this mind-blowing episode. Joined by local newshound Alex Johnston, this episode breaks down the winding road that has led to Jeremy Rockliff's ascendency to the Premiership and what lies ahead for the state's new leader.

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With a federal election closing in fast, the FontCast team dive into what they think is going to happen between now and polling day. Does the Liberal's loss in South Australia point toward issues for the Liberals more broadly? Join Brad Nowland, Brad Stansfield and Becher Townshend for this unmissable episode of the FontCast.

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The former state politician who made tens of millions of dollars on the sale of the fitness empire he built from scratch is back with a new book and a no holds barred conversation with the FontCast team. The former state Liberal leader's Dumbells to Diamonds is the incredible true story of how Cheek cracked the code on 24-hour fitness centres going from self-confessed business failure to runaway success in just eight years. “It took me more than forty years of hard work to become an overnight success,” he tells the team in this not-to-be-missed special episode of the FontCast.

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The political gods have gifted the FontCast team with a cabinet reshuffle to kick off a new season of the podcast. Sarah Courtney's sudden departure from the state government raised some eyebrows among the team but Stansfield was not surprised. Jump into this episode for some cutting edge analysis of how this reshuffle will play out.

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The most anticipated FontCast of the year is here. Becher and the Brads are joined by newshound and friend of the FontCast Alex Johnston to decide who gets the coveted Golden Font for 2021. Each panellist chooses three public figures they believe have made an outstanding contribution to Tasmania throughout 2021. The person with the most votes takes out the prize. Obviously, Peter Gutwein is an unbackable favourite to make it three in a row but there are always surprises when the votes are cast.

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Alex Johnston joins the team as they make reflect on 2021 and make their sweeping predictions for 2022. Alex helps Brad, Becher and Brad cover everything from state and federal politics to Covid-19 and small business. This episode is the last one of the year before the famous awarding of the coveted Golden Font later in the month. Don't miss this episode for some of the state's most astute and informed political analyses.UPDATE: The Hon Ruth Forrest and the Hon Mike Gaffney advise she did not have a conversation with Mr Fairbrother about the TasTAFE bill.

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The editor of The Mercury newspaper, Jenna Cairney, joins the FontCast team to unpack budget estimates and all the excitement that goes with it. It wasn't so much the Government's performance in delivering the estimates that got the conversation flowing but the opposition's reply. Jenna's assessment of the opposition, on the whole, is that it was a "shocking state of affairs". She says the opposition has been so severely affected by the demise of David O'Byrne and the internal politics continuing to dived the Labor party that it hasn't been able to get back to being an opposition, let alone an alternative government. Stansfield agrees with most of that.

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Becher calls it the hay-out-of-the-barn budget. The Gutwein Government has handed down a surprise-free state budget. The first since the Liberals held power in the election. The numbers were better than expected. While other states are foundering, Tasmania is sailing strong through the COVID storm. Fresh out of budget lockdown, the editor of the Tasmanian Business Reporter, Amanda Lovell, joined the FontCast will all the juicy budget details. Most importantly, she said the journalists were fed extremely well while they were cut off from the outside world. That's usually a sign that there there is a healthy budget on the way... and there was. Tens of thousands of new jobs. Dwelling approvals up by almost 50 per cent on last year. Retail trade and exports are also forecast to surge. But it's come at a cost. The return to surplus has been pushed back to keep the state running so strongly. That's where Becher's metaphor comes in. All the hay that had been stockpiled in the barn in preparation for a long, cold winter is being hauled out now winter is here. It reeks of sound economic management. Now that the hay is being distributed and the barn is emptying out, what could possibly go wrong?
Jump into this special episode of the FontCast with Brad Stansfield, Brad Nowland, Becher Townshend and Amanda Lovell to find out.

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Great Scott! We're going back to the future in an action-packed episode. Rebecca White has reclaimed the opposition leader's throne just weeks after losing a state election. In the words of Doc Emmet Brown "If you're going to build a time machine... why not do it with some style?" And nobody can accuse Ms White of lacking style. But was she the best choice the Labor Party had? Rejoining the FontCast team newshound and former Labor Party senior advisor Alex Johnston says yes and Becher agrees although not quite as enthusiastically. Stansfield, however, does not. It's a spirited discussion between some of the state's top political minds and, at times, Nowland struggles to keep the show on course. We also see one of the greatest bungled cliche's since Kevin Rudd's "fair shake of the sauce bottle". This is not an episode to be missed.

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As David O'Byrne emerges from the shadow ministries to lead the Labor party after its third election defeat in a row, the FontCast team emerge from the halls of Font PR to analyse the situation in a special episode of the FontCast. While Labor gets used to its new-look front bench the Government has made a veritable cascade of announcements with a "renewed vigour" as Brad Stansfield describes it. "The Government's has achieved more in the last six weeks than it did in six months prior to the election," he said. Becher Townshend says, with effectively four sitting weeks left in the second half of the year the Government simply doesn't have time to get its agenda through. He says they'll have to add an extra week or two to get the job done. Hosted by Brad Nowland this is essential listening for anyone who follows Tasmanian politics.

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