BOM comms crisis? No, it’s something much worse
When it comes to matters as serious as the inadequacy of the Bureau of Meteorology’s site redesign — and consequent impact on lives and livelihoods– spin is not going to fix the problem. Sally Branson writes that the solution lies in getting the product right and telling the people who matter.
A storm has broken over the BOM's new site
The Bureau of Meteorology’s revelation that its new website cost $96.5 million and not the $4.1 million originally claimed has sparked predictable outrage about spending. But focusing solely on the cost misses the deeper crisis. This is about trust, competence, and the fundamental responsibility of essential services.
It’s clear something has gone very wrong here. What’s equally clear is that we now need to see the work of fixing it and getting it right. People often come to me asking about the dark arts of crisis management, what spin needs to be deployed. The answer is simple: there is no spin. It’s just work. Get the work done, fix the problem, tell the people who matter.
I am crystal clear that good things cost money. When you’re building critical infrastructure that millions of Australians rely on daily, you should expect to pay serious money for serious results. The BOM website isn’t just another government portal, it’s literally life-and-death information for anyone whose safety or livelihood depends on weather information.
If the BOM had spent $96.5 million and Accenture had delivered a world-class platform that served users brilliantly, this would be a different conversation. Essential services deserve proper investment.
Bravo Sally. A great breakdown of all the current issues with the new BoM website and its critical importance for a wide range of industries. As you rightly point out, this does create opportunities for new entrants in the weather forecasting space. However, apps such as Rain Parrot rely on data coming from the BoM to satisfy their growing customer base. If that integrity is jeopardised, then trust in all forms of weather intelligence is compromised.
What I would like to see added to the list of Dr Minchin’s transparency actions is a disclosure of what the brief to Accenture was from the BoM, and secondly what pre-launch testing was conducted and with whom?
$96M+ is a large amount to invest in such a critical piece of government infrastructure, so disclosing the scope of work parameters is an essential piece of the puzzle.
All of BoM’s ROBUST projects were delivered like this – overpriced and underwhelming. The only difference with this one was that the whole of Australia got to experience the ROBUST treatment.
This has consequences well beyond the budget blowout. There are already critics of climate change looking for ammunition to use against scientific institutions. The Bureau of Meteorology is an institution that should operate at a level beyond reproach. It will take a lot for their brand to recover from this.
You say the $96.5M is spent. Any other business that had spent this kind of money and got a website so bad that it had to publicly apologise would have called up Accenture (and Deloitte) and told them they were fixing it and if you ever want to work with the Govt again, you’ll not even dare to ask for more money.
But it’s only the taxpayer, so bill away.
I agree with this. A contract of this size should include provisions that the end product is fit for purpose. It seems this is not. And if that is the fault of poor research, poor analysis or poor execution (and not just placating a client with their own ideas) then surely they have an obligation to fix it? For this price tag, even if they don’t have a contractual need, for the sake of all their reputations, I don’t see why they would walk away leaving all the problems as they stand. So many areas of deficit to end up where we have.
Tradies , road workers , bridge builders, fishermen, farmers, driving you name it if you work outdoors the weather affects you. The wind , rain ,heat,storms and snow. The old site had it all and fairly easy to navigate. This new website isn’t even as functional as the bom phone app. This new site the pages originally opened to sub headings explaining what the sections of the radar ect.do in stead of giving data pages like maps. I can’t fathom out why on the bottom left of most pages is a link to Aboriginal weather presented like an explanation for a primary school project. Possibly have to spend tens of millions to alter this mess up.