$96m website storm leaves BOM chiefs a little hot under the collar
On Wednesday, like most of New South Wales, my part of the world was subject to a declaration of ‘extreme’ fire conditions (one step shy of catastrophic), with a total fire ban in place. Sure, the wind gusted crazily but it rained most of the day.
Perhaps the vagaries of our weather are what makes it such a hot conversation topic or sometimes a perfunctory chat with the chance of a late outburst.
There has been a lot of stormy weather with a dark cloud hanging over the Bureau of Meteorology where we now know displaying the weather, rather than predicting it, has come at an eye-watering cost of $96 million and change to the taxpayer, after discarding a sturdy, user-friendly model.
For many of us, this has made the bureau’s forecasts as reliable as a glance out the window first thing in the morning. Some will have overdressed or possibly left the brolly at home only to be drenched by a late shower. However, farmers who rely on the BOM’s website for the welfare of livestock or fishermen who take their chances every day out on the oceans, have had every good reason to complain.
The new website launched with little fanfare on October 22 amid wild storms in SE Queensland, dust storms in Victoria and heatwaves elsewhere.
In a fit of hollow boasting, the BOM called the new site, “modern and sleek.” Users were less impressed. Some found the interface confusing and difficult to use. More seriously others reported database failures, with dark messages indicating no information was available for their local areas.
The botched launch wasn’t the only problem. Originally described as a $4 million upgrade, it transpired this was only for design and appearance.
The stuff an old web designer I once worked for called ‘the pretty stuff’ and BOM spokespeople described clunkily as “the interface”, a term largely unused by web designers these days. The current term is functionality but the real cost of upgrade, is nudging $100 million.
The old BOM website was one of the most used in Australia with over eight billion hits a year. Like many Australians, I use the app regularly. I always found the rain radar useful, especially during significant downfalls. I don’t use the website version much at all so I was confused at the storm over its release, made more confounding by the fact that the BOM switched the old website back on days later.
Since then, Labor’s Environment Minister Murray Watt has dragged out senior management, blinking under TV arc lights to face some awkward questions.
“I totally understand the miscommunication that led to this perception in the public, but I want to make it clear that it was always going to cost a lot more than $4 million,” a visibly nervous Dr Stuart Minchin said.
Minchin has been in the job now for a month.
“It was originally scoped back in 2017 and funded and approved by (the Turnbull) cabinet at that time,” Minchin said.
“Overall, the program was always intended to be in the order of $80 million.”
The additional $15 million was the cost of delays arising from the Covid pandemic.
“What the BOM had said to me was that there were other elements of the website design that did increase the costs,” Senator Watt said on Monday.
“I don’t think that I was aware of that total cost of $96 million, but I understand that people are very concerned about that amount of money and that’s why I’ve asked the new CEO to get on top of what occurred.”
The inelegant statement of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, was barely addressed, other than to hint at some security concerns.
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How’s the weather up your way? We have been having a lot of weather here lately. More weather than most times even. Mostly lovely weather although I don’t like the look of that storm cell and that cloud on the horizon looks like the alien mothership. I’ll bring an umbrella just in case.