Environment Minister Murray Watt urges BOM to ‘take taxpayers money seriously’ after $96m website bungle

Environment Minister Murray Watt has urged the Bureau of Meteorology to “take taxpayers money seriously” after their “disappointing” $96 million website bungle.

It comes as it has been revealed the recent BOM website overhaul rolled out in October — which was unpopular with scores of Australians — cost a staggering $96m rather than the $4.1m originally claimed by the agency.

Politicians from all sides have criticised the blowout and raised questions about cultural issues within the bureau.

National Party leader David Littleproud accused BOM of “misleading” the public on the total cost of the unpopular website change, warning the fiasco had the potential to erode the public’s trust in the bureau.

“It’s disgraceful and there’s a cultural deficiency at the Bureau of Meteorology,” he told Sky News on Monday.

“They actually said publicly that it costs $4.1m, it’s now $96m. The fact that they have misled the Australian people in that way is disgraceful.

“They’ve had a litany of errors, not just in their forecasting, but now treating people with such disrespect.

“It just goes to show there’s a cultural problem at the bureau, and unless the Minister gets involved, I suspect we’re going to see an erosion of any confidence in the bureau moving forward.”

Labor Assistant Minister Matt Thistlethwaite said the government couldn’t explain the spending, which was why the Environment Minister had launched a probe into it.

“That cost blowout is ridiculous and simply unacceptable. And that’s why Murray Watt has launched an investigation to try to find out how this has occurred,” he said.

Senator Watt revealed the bureau did not tell him about the scale of the expense when he was first briefed. He told ABC Radio he had “very serious concerns” over how the redesign was managed.

The bureau’s new chief executive Dr Stuart Minchin, who has only been chairman for two weeks, said in a statement on Sunday that the original $4.1m cost had only included the front-end website design, not the rebuild and testing.

Dr Minchin claimed the original figure didn’t include a $78m website design contract for private consultancy Accenture Australia nor the security testing for the new system.

“I met with (Minchin) on his very first day to outline my concerns and my request for him to get on top of this,” Senator Watt said.

“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.”

Dr Minchin — who took over from former chief Andrew Johnson — has vowed to deliver greater transparency within the agency.

“I’ve been fully briefed on the new website, the feedback we have received and our response through the updates that have been completed and that are planned,” Dr Minchin said in a statement.

“I am committed to opening the lines of communication between the BOM and the community. Inherently, we don’t, and won’t, always get it perfectly right. But, we are constantly striving to get better.”

Senator Watt said it was clear the agency’s actions hadn’t met public expectations.

“I’m as disappointed as anyone about this. I’m very disappointed in the way this has been handled,” Senator Watt said.

“The BOM is an independent agency, and it manages its own affairs. But obviously it’s important that they, like every other federal agency, take taxpayers’ money seriously.

“My understanding is that there were many dimensions to this project. It wasn’t just about designing what goes on the screen.

“There was a lot of back-of-house work as well. But I accept that it’s a lot of money, and it’s important that the bond can justify to the Australian public that it’s using that money wisely.”

Liberal Senator Maria Kovacic said the BOM app was an important piece of government infrastructure but agreed the excessive cost of the redevelopment needed to be explained.

“For the cost to blow out to almost $100m is extraordinary and something that this government needs to explain as to how this has happened, why it has happened, and how the spending has gotten so out of control,” she said.