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Revelations that the new Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) website cost twenty times its originally cited cost have drawn criticism from federal politicians.
The bureau’s chief executive, Stuart Minchin, who is two weeks into the job, revealed in an open letter on Sunday the new website cost $96.5 million.
Following its release last month, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) faced a wave of criticism from Australians who found it challenging to locate essential information, with many expressing confusion over the rain radar features.
Politicians criticised the price tag, with Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek saying that some of the revelations in recent times “surprised everyone”.
“I don’t think the new website has been a good exercise for the Bureau of Meteorology,” she told Channel 7’s Sunrise program on Monday.
“An unpopular website that doesn’t tell people the weather, well, that’s not really delivering, is it?”
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek acknowledged that part of the funding was allocated to crucial updates, such as enhancing back-end security. However, she indicated that the overall expenditure unexpectedly caught the government off guard.
‘Serious concerns’
Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt, who holds ministerial responsibility for the agency, said he had met with the acting chief executive and Minchin to reset expectations.
“I got very serious concerns over how this website change was managed as soon as the issues came to light a couple of weeks ago,” Watt told ABC Radio National on Monday.
“I think that the BoM has got some explaining to do about that.
“I met with [Minchin] on his very first day to outline my concerns and my request for him to get on top of this.
“I’m looking forward to a bit of a change in the culture and the approach of the BoM, and I want to make very clear that it’s an institution and has staff that I very much support.”
‘It infuriated farmers’
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce said it wasn’t good enough.
“We spent $96 million to put a B at the end of the BoM site. It’s now a bomb. It’s hopeless,” he said.
“It infuriated so many farmers and the people who worked it because we really liked the old site.
“Now we’ve got this fiasco, and we find out it’s cost us $96 million to stuff something up completely.”
The BoM website is one of the most popular in Australia, with millions visiting each day for their weather forecasts.
Minchin also said a new, refreshed website was coming as soon as this week, after an update was postponed due to Tropical Cyclone Fina, which battered the Top End over the weekend.
The new executive said it was vital that Australians didn’t lose faith in the organisation.
“I have seen up close the dedication and expertise of our people working to deliver timely forecasts, warnings, updates and briefings that we all rely on,” he said.
