Bureau of Meteorology puts emergency data behind $40k paywall for Qld councils
The Bureau of Meteorology has been slammed for a move to put crucial real-time weather data behind a ‘paywall’, drawing comparisons to Netflix.
Queensland’s councils will now have to pay up to $40,000 a year to get critical real-time weather information the Bureau of Meteorology has decided to stop providing for free after nearly 30 years.
The move, which the Bureau insists has been years in the making, has been blasted by Disaster Recovery Minister Ann Leahy who warned the information was lifesaving and “not Netflix”.
The latest criticism of the Bureau comes after the organisation finally made changes to the rain map on its new website — the rollout of which has been riddled with errors.
The Courier-Mail can reveal the weather bureau is preparing to phase out a key piece of software known as Enviromon, which provides real-time rainfall and river level gauge data to Queensland councils from July next year.
This data is considered critical for disaster preparations and councils are being cut off because the replacement system — known as OneRain — cannot be sub-licensed according to the Bureau.
It means BOM is the sole user of OneRain, and councils have been told to source their own software to meet their requirements.
Local Government Association of Queensland chief executive officer Alison Smith said ratepayers would be charged for information they relied on in emergencies, as councils would need to spend tens of thousands to get a new system plus pay annual subscription fees.
“When weather events are becoming more frequent and more severe it simply does not make sense that a service taxpayers have already funded wants to charge for emergency information,” she said.
Ms Leahy demanded the Bureau, which last financial year cost taxpayers $696m to operate, reconsider the decision.
“This is lifesaving information, not Netflix,” she said.
“It is ridiculously dangerous to put it behind a paywall.”
A Bureau spokeswoman said councils had several years to prepare for the end of Enviromon — which has been in place since 1996 — and many had.
“The Bureau is replacing Enviromon with a new piece of software, OneRain, which provides all the functions of Enviromon but in a cyber-secure, stable and resilient package,” she said.
“It is up to councils to determine which software solution will meet their requirements.
“Those that haven’t have until June 30, 2026 to transition to new software, and will be supported by the Bureau until then.”
Somerset Regional Council chief executive officer Andrew Johnson said the Bureau had a responsibility to continue safeguarding the community through accurate reporting.
“This represents a major and unfunded cost shift from the Commonwealth to local governments — a burden that regional councils such as Somerset cannot absorb,” he said.
“Many local governments remain uncertain about what options are available or whether any continuity of data or service will be maintained.”
Mr Johnson said the Queensland Government should advocate to the Commonwealth and the Bureau to reconsider the end of Enviromon, or provide an alternative service to councils.
State and territory ministers met Bureau executives on Friday morning to discuss changes to its website.
Soon after, BOM’s acting chief executive officer Peter Stone said the website radar would return “to a visual style many users said they found intuitive and reliable for interpreting weather conditions”.
In the bureau’s old radar map black areas signified the most severe part of the storm, including that hail was coming. But a new colour scale on the new website meant users assumed a passing storm was weaker than it was.
