When Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) launched its long-awaited website redesign on an unseasonably hot day in October, the team quickly found themselves at the center of a national firestorm. What was intended to be a modern upgrade instead triggered a viral backlash, culminating in a shocking revelation: the revamp cost Australian taxpayers A$96.5 million—more than 20 times the initially stated figure.
The public outcry was immediate and fierce. The hashtag #changeitback went viral as users condemned the new site. Key features beloved by farmers, fishermen, and the general public—like the ability to input GPS coordinates for hyper-local forecasts—had vanished or become difficult to find. The new color scheme for the rain radar was widely panned, and the timing, during a period of severe weather, was criticized as dangerously poor.
“It’s the government IT project equivalent of ordering a renovation, discovering the contractor has made your house less functional, and then learning they charged you for a mansion,” explained psychologist Joel Pearson, describing the perfect storm of public outrage.
Apologies and a Stunning Cost Revelation
Within a week, the acting head of the agency was forced to apologize, acknowledging concerns that the site’s poor usability had left people in Queensland underprepared for storms. The government issued a scathing rebuke and demanded immediate fixes, prompting the BOM to hastily resurrect some old features.
Just as the furor began to subside, the new agency head, Dr. Stuart Minchin, dropped a bombshell: the total cost was not the previously reported A$4.1 million, but a staggering A$96.5 million. The figure, he clarified, covered a full technological rebuild prompted by a major 2015 cybersecurity breach.
The news ignited a fresh wave of anger and political scrutiny. “We spent $96m to put a B at the end of the BOM site. It’s now bomb, it’s hopeless,” quipped Barnaby Joyce, a parliamentarian from the Nationals party. The government has since demanded a full explanation for how the funds were spent, leaving the Bureau of Meteorology facing a forecast of continued political and public pressure.
By James Kisoo
