Internal documents show BoM escalated questions on climate and floods

In the lead-up to the May 2022 election, the Bureau of Meteorology instructed its communications team to refer any questions on climate change to senior management under a media approvals policy for “sensitive” topics.

Emails from February and March 2022, obtained by this masthead, suggest questions about climate, severe weather, floods, and the Great Barrier Reef had to be referred up the chain, and sometimes as far as chief executive Dr Andrew Johnson.

Flooding devastates Lismore in February 2022.Credit: Elise Derwin

This comes after this masthead last week reported on claims from five current and former staff members about workplace culture, and that questions on climate change needed sign-off from senior management. The BoM strongly denied the claims.

This masthead can reveal that, as NSW and Queensland were gripped by floods, including the devastating Lismore floods, the BoM turned down a request on March 1 for a senior meteorologist to be interviewed by Leigh Sales on 7.30, citing operational requirements.

The revelations go to the heart of a debate about the politicisation of the public service, and the role of national meteorological services in interpreting climate data and educating the public about the links between climate change and weather events.

A BoM spokesperson said there was no list of topics that needed approval from senior management, and this had been true since at least July 2022. No comment was made about the emails that predated that time.

Coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef.Credit: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

“There is no policy in place that requires media inquiries to be referred upwards – this includes climate, severe weather, floods, and the Great Barrier Reef inquiries,” the spokesperson said. “Media inquiries are assessed based on complexity not topic.”

The BoM would not comment on the February 2022 email, which gave guidance based on a conversation with three executives including the then general manager of communications. All three executives have since left the company.

The email sent to five members of the communications team, and copied in to two of the three managers, explains that the general manager of communications will decide if a heads-up or further clearance from the chief executive or another senior manager is needed.

The email also says that communications staff must not reply to a media inquiry without checking with a manager if the journalist is from a national media outlet or “known to require additional support”.

No further clearance was required for “routine weather of the day” and forecasts if it did not relate to extreme weather.

This week, a BoM spokesperson said: “The response provided last week is still applicable in that all media inquiries are approved following a process where appropriate subject matter experts across the bureau are consulted.

“At times, this includes escalation to senior management including the chief executive depending on the nature and sensitivity of the matter – as happens in any similar organisation.”

The spokesperson also said processes were reviewed after every weather event and severe weather season, and improvements were implemented, and this “includes streamlining processes to manage media inquiries”.

Australia has endured catastrophic weather events including the 2019 NSW bushfires.Credit: Nick Moir

A separate email from March 2022 shows how a request for a senior meteorologist to be interviewed by Sales on 7.30 about the NSW and Queensland floods was flagged for referral to Johnson and turned down.

The interview request was for March 1, 2022, a few days after the catastrophic Lismore flood. The BoM communications team identified an available senior meteorologist and prepared extensive talking points based on a cleared document by a senior manager in the communications team at the time. The internal media request showed it was flagged as needing clearance from the chief executive.

In a reply email, the senior manager said the focus needed to be on operations, and the interview should be declined. It is unclear if that was his decision or had been referred to Johnson.

A BoM spokesperson told this masthead the interview was declined at the time due to operational requirements, since staff face competing priorities during severe weather events.

“Since 2022, the bureau has increased and continues to increase, the number of meteorologists who are appropriately trained to deliver media interviews,” the spokesperson said.

In a third email, from March 2, 2024, a News Corp journalist asked about difficulties the BoM was facing in providing forecasts about the Queensland floods, including how much climate change was affecting the ability to accurately forecast.

The response outlined the forecasts the BoM had provided over several days, and there was no on-the-record response on the climate change question, only a link to the 2020 State of the Climate report.

The BoM spokesperson told this masthead the report was an “invaluable resource”.

Professor Scott Power, a senior principal research scientist who quit the bureau in 2020, told this masthead in 2022 that he agreed with the World Meteorological Organisation and other prominent agencies that national meteorological services should play a prominent role in addressing climate change.

A former employee who worked as an executive assistant for 10 years and was laid off in 2020 said the cautious approach to climate change communication predated Johnson’s time as chief executive because the organisation saw its role as the guardian of the data and believed talking about impacts was politicisation. She asked for her name to be withheld to protect her current job.

Johnson was appointed by the Coalition government in 2016 and reappointed for another five-year term in 2021.

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