![\"Users](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/66f05e69c180671e253ae8e020be6083fb738bf0.jpg\")
Camera IconUsers are frustrated with the placement of the radar on the website. Credit: BOM<\/p>\nThe new Bureau of Meteorology boss has claimed the staggering $96.5 million bill for a website redesign was an open secret within Australia\u2019s national weather agency.<\/p>\n
New bureau\u2019s chief executive officer Stuart Minchin said a drive for transparency prompted him to release the full costings, which paid for a broader IT systems overhaul, just a fortnight into his tenure. The bill was initially publicly quoted at $4.1m.<\/p>\n
The website\u2019s overhauled design was widely criticised when it was released in October, with users taking to social media to complain the update was harder to navigate and the radar was more difficult to read.<\/p>\n
Of the total $96.5m in funding, a total $79.8m was spend building the upgrade, including reconstructing IT technology and installing a supercomputer to handle the vast amounts of data from observing network and weather models.<\/p>\n
Private consultancy firm Accenture Australia received $78m of this to develop the new website\u2019s content management system. The CMS contract was scheduled to run between August 2019 and 2027 and was initially valued at $31.3m.<\/p>\n
BOM paid a further $4.1m for the website design, which the public uses and will need to be updated given the significant critical user feedback and $12.6m to launch and security test the system, which was important given an attempted hack in 2015.<\/p>\n
The website\u2019s overhauled design was widely criticised when it was released in October, with users taking to social media to complain the update was harder to navigate and the radar was more difficult to read.<\/p>\n
Camera IconUsers are frustrated with the placement of the radar on the website. Credit: BOM<\/p>\n
Dr Minchin blamed a \u201cmiscommunication\u201d for the $4.1m being initially quoted, and said he wanted to proactively and publicly set the record straight.<\/p>\n
He claimed the wording of a journalist\u2019s question prompted an answer which only took in the front-end design costs, rather than the broader project costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I\u2019ve only been in the bureau for two weeks. As soon as I started, I started looking into this issue. It\u2019s been quite open within the bureau, the cost of this,\u201d he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there was perhaps a communication error made at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe exact question that was asked by the journalist at the time \u2014 which was about the website design costs \u2014 was answered (directly) rather than a more holistic answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can commit that on taking the helm of the bureau, I wanted to make that as transparent as possible and be open and honest with the Australian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Minchin claimed there was no doubt the government knew about the costs \u2014 approved by the Turnbull government in 2017 \u2014 saying it has since been included in the budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is part of a larger program of work that was actually signed off by Cabinet back in 2017 and has repeatedly been part of the budget updates,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s been visible to government all the way through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Environment Minister Murray Watt expressed his confidence in Dr Minchin to \u201cget to the bottom of it\u201d, spruiking the CEO\u2019s \u201cvery strong record\u201d in the Senate on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
But Senator Watt criticised BOM\u2019s earlier public messaging on the costings of the changes \u2014 saying they \u201ccould have been more fulsome\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Federal](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/b4797eba67ff830448800d50024e47fb5d4ae8a8.jpg\")
Camera IconFederal Minister for the Environment and Water Murray Watt pictured at a press conference in Perth. Credit: Carwyn Monck\/The West Australian<\/p>\n
\u201cI, along with, I\u2019d say most other Australians, were pretty unimpressed with the way the BOM handled that,\u201d he told Senate Question Time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey subsequently clarified that there was more to it than just the public facing website, but I do think that they could have been more fulsome, shall we say, in what they just said at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe respect the fact that those independent agencies have an obligation to spend taxpayers\u2019 money wisely. And that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019ve said to the new CEO, when I\u2019ve met with him twice in his first fortnight in the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have confidence that the new CEO is taking these matters seriously and will properly investigate them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Minchin urged the public not to misunderstand the size of the overhaul, which went well beyond a simple refresh of the website design to supercharged the IT systems that prop up Australia\u2019s national weather agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a massive project. Please, don\u2019t misunderstand the size of this. We had to install a backup supercomputer. This is a massive investment and a huge amount of technical work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe website component is about 10 per cent of a much larger program of replacing all of the bureau\u2019s back-end systems and processes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Minchin said there was a \u201creal and urgent need\u201d to address the security concerns and said without the update the system would have been \u201cvery insecure\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to look back at the hacking incident in 2015, which opened up the threat that hackers could take down the entire bureau system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new Bureau of Meteorology boss has claimed the staggering $96.5 million bill for a website redesign was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":403864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,55794,50,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-403863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-federal-politics","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115611029793425891","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}