Abstract

There are two Australias today. It is not easy to pinpoint when this all started but everyone saw the writing on the wall for the federal government when the water crisis of 2012 hit. This was an issue they had bungled from the beginning and if not for the energy and skill of local communities and indigenous-green groups the crisis could have been an absolute disaster. It was this issue that catalysed the awakening of local, communal, indigenous and green consciousness not as separate strands competing for airspace but as a coalescent counterpoint to what these groups jokingly called "Howard Central", or simply HC