Thinkabit; Undividual's idea would if part of a general scheme to run
the surplus inland be practical. I do not know the geography around
the damn in question but it might only need a tunnel as most of that
type of proposal require.

Individual,

Yes. They are lying to hide the fact that they know nothing (unsuccessfully); and they are lying to keep the funds rolling in (successfully).

They get away with their lies because politicians are also liars and/or corrupt, and most other people are too disinterested to bring the lot of them to account.

Individual,
Supposing more of the water was diverted inland: then what do you think should be done with it?
It may have escaped your attention, but in a La Niña year like this one, the inland gets more rain too. Most areas have had a wet February, and there's plenty more to come.

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Bazz,
If you don't know the geography, please consult a map. But I warn you: the Great Divide is much bigger than you think it is!

thinkabit,
I did say voters, not 16 year olds. Today's sixteen year olds will hopefully have more sense in ten years than todays 30 -60 year olds !

Aidan,
The distance is not a hurdle with today's technology but unfortunately mentality is the main hurdle for not starting decades-long ongoing work on future infrastructure & flood mitigation & literally self-funding long-time employment !

individual: It's not the distance that is the problem- it's the Newtonian physics concept of the conservation of energy and the fact that you have this great big thing called the Great Dividing range (which Aidan mentioned) that you have to push the water up over. Junior high school kids (ie: 13year olds) know about this concept and in senior physics they learn the equations to calculate the energy required (the essential equation here is real simple PE=mgh - it only involves primary school math).

But the real major problem is the Wivenhoe only spills infrequently and for a short time- for most of the time (we're talking years in a row sometimes) your turbine will be doing absolutely nothing! A high school student would realise this after a quick internet search.

It would make a lot more sense to capture the water that falls on the western side of the range when it does in volume that swells the rivers and use that. Such heavy rain/flooding usually happens more regularly then the Wivenhoe spilling.

And guess what, that is *exactly* what farmers do. For example, on the western side here in Queensland a lot of cotton is grown and the farmers build these massive dams (massive for a private endeavour- not so big for governments) called ring-top dams close to waterways. These dam have low-head high-volume pumps that pump water a short way (sometimes just 10's of meters) into them when there is river swelling/flooding rain events. Here's an example of such a dam being built (note the huge size- 3500 megalitres which is for just one farm! ): http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/4144793/digging-deep-for-dam-good-reason/