The value of hindsight, or how to say "I told you so" without ever having done so

On the 9th of March, 2010, the opposition (Liberal National Party) called for a reduction of the flood mitigation capacity of Wivenhoe dam to enhance Brisbane's water supply.  Not content with a review of options, Mr Seeney (LNP Shadow Minister for Natural Resources) demanded that extra water be retained until the completion of any review.  "It would be absurd", he said, "to release water from Wivenhoe until all options are thoroughly investigated."   The LNP renewed its calls after Wivenhoe dissipated a flood event in early October of 2010.   Then Lawrence Springborg renewed the call on December 20th, in the middle of yet another flood event, from which Wivenhoe again protected Brisbane.

These calls represented the ideal time for anyone to argue for enhanced flood mitigation at Wivenhoe.  Those such as Andrew Dragun, who now believes that water should have been released to prevent the risk of flooding, said nothing.  He thought it was far more important to attack the Federal Governments Murray Darling Basin Scheme.  Hedley Thomas, who has run so hard on this story for the Australian, ignored the story.  And Michael O'Brien, the engineer who has so publicly condemned the dam operators was not to be heard. Their wisdom, it appears, is exclusively 20-20 hindsight.

Let's put this in context.

2011 and History: How big was Brisbane's flood of 13/1/2011

In this post I will be returning again to the size of the Brisbane Flood.  The reason for discussing these issues again is that  I have some new and interesting information, and also because these issues continue to be revisited by people who are trying to drum up a witch hunt against either the dam operators or the state government (or both).