The staggering TRUTH about the weather bureau’s disastrous website redesign – as boss finally admits the eye-watering real cost

The Bureau of Meteorology has copped more backlash after the new boss admitted that its disastrous and unpopular weather app cost almost $100million to roll out.

The BoM came under fire last month after the agency unveiled the major redesign of its website that was slammed by users as ‘too difficult to use’.

Now, the federal government’s weather agency is again on the back foot after it was revealed the loathed app cost taxpayers $96million to redesign and launch.

The staggering cost, significantly higher than the figure originally stated, was revealed as Tropical Cyclone Fina wreaked havoc on Darwin over the weekend.

The original $4.1million figure did not include a $78 million website design contract for ‘private consultation’ by Accenture Australia.

New bureau chief Dr Stuart Minchin has admitted that the total cost of the redesign, completed under his predecessor Dr Andrew Johnson, was much higher.

‘I’ve looked into it. The total cost, when you add the Accenture work, the security testing and everything else, it’s about $96million,’ he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Mr Minchin has vowed to be more honest with taxpayers and admit when the weather bureau gets it wrong. 

‘I’m really coming in trying to be open and transparent about how we approach things, being open to saying when we’ve got things wrong,’ he said.

‘When you’re criticised and bashed regularly, it’s easy to get defensive, but I don’t think that’s helpful.’

Nationals leader David Littleproud slammed the spending, adding that Australians ‘deserve transparency’ regarding the much-maligned website.

‘It is unbelievable a private consultancy was paid $78million to redesign the website, but then security and system testing meant that Australian taxpayers actually paid $96 million,’ Mr Littleproud said.

‘The seriousness of this cannot be understated. This isn’t just about a clunky website, the changes actually put lives and safety at risk.

‘Let’s not forget the BoM predicted the east coast was going to have a drought, creating panic where a whole lot of farmers offloaded all their livestock. We then had one of the best seasons we have ever had. This was devastating for farmers who had already sold everything.

‘When government failure destroys lives, serious questions need to be answered. Australians deserve to know how this latest disaster unfolded.’

A BoM spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Mail the staggering $96.5million bill to develop the new website.

‘The redevelopment of the Bureau website was part of a large program of work to improve the long-term security, stability and resilience of critical bureau services,’ the spokesperson said.

‘A complete rebuild was necessary to ensure the website meets modern security, usability and accessibility requirements for the millions of Australians who rely on it each day.’

The BoM also said it had ‘continued to listen to and analyse community feedback’ to ‘inform prioritisation and development for the next release and future planned releases’ after the website was rolled out on October 22.

‘We changed the radar map (on October 31) to show rain reflectivity… as the standard setting,’ the spokesperson said.

‘This brought back the visual style that the community said they found intuitive and reliable for interpreting weather conditions. This option was already available the new site, but not as the default setting when visiting the page…

‘In addition to making ongoing improvements, we will continue to develop and promote support material to address common themes in community feedback.

‘The bureau has always planned to continually improve the new website over time through regular feature releases. Feedback received since launch will shape what is prioritised for future releases.’

The latest blunder to plague the BoM came after the website sparked a wave of backlash online and on talkback radio just hours after going live last month.

Aussies complained that simple features, including the much-loved rain radar, were too difficult to locate on the redesigned platform.

Many users complained they couldn’t see the forecast weather in their area on the website, with the new version only showing the past 40 minutes of weather. 

And on October 30, the website’s weather radar crashed as brutal thunderstorms threatened parts of south-east Queensland.

The radar on BoM’s mobile phone app went down with some residents reporting significant lags and others seeing nothing but a loading wheel.

A message displayed on the radar app warned users to ‘note the time shown with the map’ as ‘some information is not complete but we’re working on it’.

A bureau spokesperson told the Daily Mail the outage was not ‘related in any way to the adoption of the new website’.

Then acting-BoM chief executive Dr Peter Stone defended the new website shortly after it was rolled out.

‘It’s clear we need to do more to help people through the change, both by making adjustments to the website and by helping users to understand its new features,’ Dr Stone said last month.

‘We are moving quickly to act on the feedback received, and I am confident the community will start to see more improvements in the coming weeks,’ he said.

A spokesperson for the Bureau previously told the Daily Mail the changes came off the back of user research and testing and a 15 month beta trial.

‘During that time, community feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,’ they said.

They added a dip in user satisfaction was to be expected following the changes and said it expects it will increase as users become more familiar with the site.