SEQ ratepayers left high and dry ...

Good summary on current SEQ water issues from the Gold Coast Bulletin.

An excerpt (annotated):

All the water shoals could have been avoided if the 1980s proposal to build Wolffdene Dam behind Beenleigh had gone ahead. In size it would have been closer to the huge Wivenhoe Dam in the Brisbane Valley than the Hinze Dam on the Gold Coast.

Opposing the dam was a crucial 1989 election plank for the Wayne Goss team. Goss was egged on at protest meetings by Midnight Oil singer turned MP Peter Garrett. The great drought of the early 21st century was not foreseen. The 'sunbelt' population growth potential in southeast Queensland was ignored.

[Not to mention Kevin Rudd's involvement as Goss's chief adviser.]
...

Premier Peter Beattie can see the not-so-submerged political dangers lurking ahead. He even allowed wife Heather to be falsely touted as a lord mayoral candidate in Brisbane last weekend to distract examination of the water proposals.

See - Gold Coast Bulletin - Ratepayers high and dry.