The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM)’s flawed and expensively redesigned website will come under fresh scrutiny, with the federal environment minister asking the agency’s new boss to closely examine how it all went so wrong, and report back to him.
It comes amid revelations that the new website cost more than $96 million to design – far less than the $4 million figure originally spent.
The national weather agency was flooded with complaints from the public after the website was launched a month ago.
Users found it difficult to navigate, and also criticized changes to the radar map that made it harder to read place names.
BOM users, particularly farmers, were critical of the changes made to the radar map. ,ABC Rural: Justin Longmore,
Farmers were upset as they were unable to find rainfall data.
The federal government was forced to intervene and ordered the agency to fix the website.
The site has since reverted to the older version of the radar map and other changes have been made to the site, with more changes to come.
In a statement to the ABC, BOM acknowledged that “the total cost of the website is approximately $96.5 million”.
‘Complete reconstruction required’
It said the cost breakdown included $4.1 million for the redesign, $79.8 million for website construction and $12.6 million for the launch and security testing of the site.
A spokesperson said, “A complete rebuild was necessary to ensure the website meets modern security, usability and accessibility requirements for the millions of Australians who respond to it every day.”
The spokesperson also said it had “continued to listen to and analyze community feedback” since the launch of the new website on October 22.
The BOM says it continues to listen to and analyze community feedback. ,ABC News: Greg Bigelow,
Nine days after launch it replaced the radar map as before.
“This brings back a visual style that the community said they found intuitive and reliable for interpreting weather conditions,”
A spokesperson said.
“This option was already available on the new site but not as the default setting when visiting the page.
“On November 7 we implemented changes to help the community receive important Fire Behavior Index information.”
According to the spokesperson, future changes were also in the pipeline in response to community feedback, but some updates were put on hold due to Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina in northern Australia.
Minister’s expectations ‘have been made very clear’
Environment Minister Murray Watt said he had met with new CEO Stuart Minchin twice last week and reiterated his concerns about the complicated process and costs.
The Environment Minister says that he has met the new boss of BOM twice. ,ABC News: Callum Flynn,
He has asked Mr Minchin to report to him on this issue.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that I’m not happy with the way BoM has handled the transition to the new website,” he told reporters on Sunday.
“I met with him on his first day and just this past week to highlight once again that I feel BOM has not lived up to the public’s expectations in terms of both website performance and website cost.
“So I’ve asked him to make sure he can address the website issues – the functionality – as his first priority and I’m glad to see he’s made changes.
“But I also ask them to know how we got to this situation with these costs and problems.
“He’s only been on the job a week but I think my expectations have become very clear.”
The minister has asked new BOM boss Stuart Minchin to prioritize website issues. ,Supply: BOM,
However, the minister stopped short of describing the website as a sheer waste of money and said he would wait to hear a response from Mr Minchin before commenting.
“Before reaching a decision, I would like to see what the new CEO of BoM is able to establish about the reasons for those cost increases and I will give my decision at that time.”
‘Another labor disaster’
National leader David Littleproud said there should be “consequences” following revelations about the true cost of the website.
Mr Littleproud said, “It is unbelievable that a private consultancy was paid $78 million to redesign the website.”
“But then safety and systems testing meant Australian taxpayers actually paid $96 million for what was nothing more than another labor disaster.
“The seriousness of this cannot be underestimated. This is not just about a useless website, the changes actually put life and safety at risk.”
“The new platform did not allow people to enter GPS coordinates for their specific property locations, limiting searches to towns or postcodes.
“Families and farmers could not access critical, local data such as river height and rainfall information, and this missing data created panic and fear in communities.
“But now, the fact that the BoM is hiding the true price of its white elephant and lying about the total figure to begin with is extremely worrying, given that the BoM is supposed to be all about trust.”
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