Stuart Minchin’s been boss of the BoM for a week but he’s at the centre of an almighty storm. Photo: Stuart Minchin.
Are we reading these numbers correctly?
Surely the Bureau of Meteorology didn’t spend almost $100 million of taxpayers’ money on a new website and app?
That’s $96.5 million to be a little more precise.
No way.
Only a mere $4.1 million for the website redesign, but then a massive $79.8 million to build it, followed by a handsome $12.6 million to launch and security test it.
That’s not possible. Quite unthinkable, even. It certainly wouldn’t really happen.
Except that it did.
Welcome to bureaucracy out of control and the wilful misuse of public money – 2025-style.
Yep, the BoM (an ever-increasingly apt name, by the way) spent $96.5 million on a new weather map website.
But at least the agency was upfront from the outset about how much it was going to cost, right?
Nope.
And it undertook the whole task after a thorough community consultation process, yeah?
No again.
The result, of course, was a far better site – more user-friendly, informative, up-to-date and interactive – than previously existed, certainly?
That’s another negative.
As has been well documented in recent weeks, the BoM’s new website has proved to be an embarrassing and, even worse, a dangerous disaster.
It hasn’t worked as it should; it’s sharing less and even wrong information; the resolution is worse; and the whole thing is far too confusing to navigate.
And it cost us almost $100 million. That’s before whatever the price tag will be for the afterthought of a May Day call for community help to fix it.
Nationals leader David Littleproud has called it like it is – a “disgrace”.
It is a total disgrace and heads should roll over it.
It is prime evidence of what Mr Littleproud says is a “cultural deficiency” at the Bureau of Meteorology.
Here’s a little more of what the Nationals leader has had to say on the matter.
“They actually said publicly that it costs $4.1 million. It’s now $96 million. And the fact that they have misled the Australian people in that way is disgraceful.
“They should be an organisation that the Australian people can trust, particularly when they’re using Australian taxpayers’ money.
“The fact that they’ve gone and changed a website, a tool within that website that many Australians rely on, and particularly in rural and remote areas, that has changed the features of it without any consultation.
“And part of that $96 million was $12.1 million to educate and promote the changes. Well, no one knew that there were any changes until they went to use it.
“But they’ve taken away features that people need in their hour of need, of understanding the weather fronts that are coming through.”
You can feel the outrage in those few lines alone.
It’s justifiable outrage, however. Littleproud is right. He’s spot on, too, in laying the task of fixing it at the feet of Environment Minister Murray Watt.
“I don’t know where Murray Watt is. He’s gone silent on this,” Littleproud says.
“He is the Minister responsible.”
The Minister responsible has called on the BoM’s new chief executive officer, Stuart Minchin, to deliver to him a “please explain” report detailing how the BoM got to the point where it is inflicting a far inferior product on the Australian people while excessively robbing their taxpayer dollars to do so.
But the new CEO can’t be blamed for the train wreck of a website – he’s barely a week into the job.
On the other hand, he should be taken to task for the weasel words he’s used in trying to publicly explain the fiasco.
In a statement issued on Sunday (23 November), titled ‘Work continues to deliver website improvements’, Dr Minchin gets a third of the way in before getting to the point.
First, he uses the statement to discuss Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina and how honoured he is to be at the helm of the organisation.
Then the understatement of the year: “Inherently, we don’t, and won’t, always get it perfectly right. But, we are constantly striving to get better.”
Following that enlightening paragraph, the CEO goes on to detail the actual cost of the whole website fiasco.
Talk about burying the lead.
What shouldn’t be buried is the total fury Australians must feel at being so awfully treated by the BoM.
The Nationals leader and the entire Coalition should pursue this issue until accountability is achieved.
Someone (many even) should lose their job over it.
If the Minister responsible doesn’t make that happen, then perhaps the Opposition should try to put his job in the firing line.
