Here we are a month down the track and still no desalination plants or any other credible solution to the problem. The best our fearless leaders can manage is "pray for rain".
Let's look at some of the things that don't seem to rate a mention:
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When the water stops running, toilets don't flush. Extremely unhygienic. Cholera, diptheria...
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No bathing water, no washing water, no dish-washing water. Probably no-one will notice in the stink of all the unflushed toilets.
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Two million people will decide all at once that they'd rather be somewhere else. There are really only three major exits, north, south and west. Under normal circumstances they jam. This time, all those people will be trying to cart their worldly goods.
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No running water, no cooling for power stations. No flush toilets and no power. More to the point, without power there's no refrigeration, which means no food.
Think Darwin after cyclone Tracy, except that there won't be a massive relief operation because Sydney has its own water problems. I expect there will be looting as people go after canned food.
So what's my exit plan? Basically I intend to leave shortly before the water stops. This will allow me to pile my family in the car and get them to Rockhampton before the sheep work out it's time to leave. This is important because I seriously expect authorities to try to prevent a mass exodus. This might make me unemployed in Rockhampton but at least I will be unemployed in a place with drinking water, electricity and flush toilets. Besides, my mum has three spare bedrooms. The house is a bit of a mess (she's a hoarder) but that can be easily remedied. That house doesn't have a rainwater tank - Rocky has plenty of water - but I think I might do something about that out of sheer paranoia.
There is a whopping big backyard that ought to be cultivated and isn't. That, I think, will also change. If I can't work for money I can always work for food. This has an appeal all its own: no taxes. The down-side to this particular plan is that every ten years or so the yard goes under floodwater. Fortunately this is fairly predictable and infrequent. Herb gardens can potted, and relocated at need to the balcony. Established fruit trees tend to more than survive the floods, so what the hey. Fishing the river isn't a way to feed yourself but I can lay my hands on a serviceable boat, and outboard motors aren't prohibitively expensive.
Regional law enforcement will be intact but Brisbane will cease to be a credible administration centre, since all of its instructions will amount to "give us all your resources". If you don't think Brisbane will behave like that then I put it to you that currently the instructions amount to "give us most of your resources". There will be a difficult transitional period while administrators and law enforcers work out that they should ignore these instructions. Ideally we should send them every bureaucrat and lawyer that can be spared (all of them) to aid with the administration of the crisis. After the last one leaves I predict that someone will accidentally put a backhoe through the communications trunk and we will be forced to close the (new) border on account of terrorism.
We'll most likely travel by car, and perhaps a rental truck to move our larger goods. The advantage of leaving early is that you can do so in an orderly fashion. It's a pity only Brisbane and Sydney are under threat; if all the major centres were wiped out I'd be able to thoroughly finance the expedition on credit without having to pay it back, which would make things a lot easier to organise: new kit all round and pay a removal company to shift it, plus I'd be inclined to get extensive tools and spares for the vehicles, not to mention a big genset. But that's just post-apocalyptic daydreaming. The banking is in Melbourne and will stay online.
Gosh, won't it be good if the north secedes. We can replace CASA with something sensible. We can re-institute the combination of personal freedom and personal liability. For example, while it is an employer's responsibility to provide safety equipment it is the individual's responsibility and choice as to when and whether to use it. Likewise with seatbelts.