The Bureau of Meteorology’s new chief is under immediate government pressure to improve its website and app, and explain how its website overhaul bill came to $96.5 million.
The cost was already known to be approximately $86 million, but that number blew out even further to $96.5 million over the weekend.
BoM CEO Steve Minchin said the full cost “reflects the significant investment required to fully rebuild and test the systems and technology that underpin the website, making sure it is secure and stable and can draw in the huge amounts of data gathered from our observing network and weather models.”
Minister for environment and water Murray Watt said yesterday that he’d already met with Minchin twice in “a touch over a week”, pressing him on the website overhaul, its functionality and usability issues, and its cost.
Watt said that he had asked the BoM chief “as his first priority to make sure that he can get on top of the issues with the website, the functionality.”
“But I have also asked him to get on top of how we got to this position with this cost, with the problems that have been involved in the website,” Watt said.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that I haven’t been happy with the way the BoM has handled its transition to a new website.”
Minchin said that an update to the website is imminent, but had been pushed back due to Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina, which made landfall in the Northern Territory.
“A scheduled website update, that was due to go live last week, was postponed due to Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina,” Minchin said.
“In this update we are responding directly to community feedback received during the beta phase and since launch in October, with a focus on making the rain radar and weather map easier to use.
“The update will be rescheduled as soon as the severe weather subsides, and we will have more on that when a date is determined.”
Watt defended the Bureau’s rationale for rebuilding the website – to address “massive cyber security risks around the old website” – but not the way the project was run.
He also confirmed that he wants to see the BoM’s website and app more closely aligned.
“The advice to me from the BoM is that one of the things they are trying to do is to make sure that there is closer alignment between those two [channels],” Watt said.
“We want to see as much consistency as possible between the information that’s being provided by the BoM, whichever source it is that people use.
“That is what the BoM are seeking to do. I encourage them to keep working on that and as further changes are required, I’m very confident they’ll make it.”