Hi. I'm back from Switzerland and in Brisbane. Strangely enough, I am wondering if this is our winter of discontent. The last time I was in Australia was for not much more than a week at Christmas. It seemed to me that everyone was happy and at least on the surface a picture of contentment. This time though all I hear is grumbling. My friends and family are not necessarily a barometer of the population but I can't help but feel Christmas was an illusion. The biting reality of winter has arrived.

Of course winter in Queensland is a reasonably warm and sunny affair so none of it seems much like the British Winter of Discontent in 1978-1979. That winter heralded the end of Labour rule. What will this winter mean for us?

I am hearing the same tune where ever I have been this past week. People are tired of the way that institutions are treating them. In one sense that seems like nothing new. We've been hearing that for years. People have lost faith in institutions. Its a tired (but true) old mantra. The big difference I see now is that people are not taking it anymore.

The grumbling is bubbling to the surface. Tired of your job and your company? Get a new one. Better yet, become self employed. Lost faith in your church but still believe in something? Find a new church or change the one you're in. Tired of politics as usual? Change the rules and change the people who are ruining it. John Howard and Mark Latham cannot dictate how we vote and what direct action we will undertake. No one has to dance to their tune. Let's make our own.

My feeling is and I know many friends I have spoken with this week agree: if you don't like the institutions, get out of them, work around them or why not even try the ultimate - change them. Change doesn't always come from within. In fact people and institutions are so often dragged kicking and screaming into change. If it takes kicking and screaming, so be it.

It's the classic glass half empty or half full scenario. My bet is the glass is half full and if we choose to, we can refill it many times! We can get back the government, companies and other institutions we let slide. This is the year we start taking them back and that's the power of the message in NHJ. Accountability isnt a catch-cry for us, it's a way of life and it's fun.