Company that built botched new BOM website wins $16m contract for new site

Climate scientists are concerned after news that a new climate data website would cost $16 million. (AAP: Nadir Kinani)

The company responsible for the highly criticised BOM website overhaul has won a $16 million tender to develop another climate data website for the government.

Technology company Accenture Australia, which was also contracted for BOM's $96 million redesign, has been tasked with building a "platform service" for the Australian Climate Service over the next three years.

It includes options for two extensions, with a maximum end date in 2033.

But the move has been criticised by people with knowledge of the project, with questions raised over whether it will be value for money, and concerns it could come at the cost of the ongoing climate science work needed to inform it.

New site or climate research?

The Australian Climate Service (ACS) is a "virtual" public service agency, made of partnerships between the BOM, CSIRO, Geoscience Australia and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

It was established in 2021 to provide improved information on climate- and weather-related risks and impacts within Australia, including Australia's first national climate risk assessment, published last year.

The ACS said one of its priorities was to develop a portal, now referred to as the "Climate Risk Hub", which could connect available risk data and science in a format that could be used by decision-makers.

It stems from the Royal Commission into Natural Disaster Arrangements, which found there was a need for climate risk information to be better organised and accessible.

A data tool is already available on the ACS website, which visualises hazard, exposure and vulnerability for local regions.

But the ACS said this would go beyond that.

"The Climate Risk Hub is the digital environment where the underlying data is brought together in a consistent and standardised way that allows more tools like the Data Explorer to be built," a spokesperson for the ACS said.

For the first time, the government has modelled the threats from climate change on Australia's future.

However, climate scientists familiar with the ACS, speaking on condition of anonymity, have raised concerns about whether the site, with its $15.68 million price tag, will deliver value for money.

Especially, they said, if it comes at the expense of ongoing weather and climate hazard research work done by partners BOM and CSIRO.

They say that without this, any climate information available on the "hub" would be uninterpretable and rapidly be out of date.

The concerns have been shared by the Greens senator for Tasmania, Peter Whish-Wilson.

"I've heard similar concerns from scientists. It's a very sensitive time for them with job cuts at CSIRO and a lack of funding across the board to science, that the government's priorities might be all wrong, putting money into potentially expensive websites rather than funding science," he said.

Given the track record of the recent BOM website, he questioned whether this would be money well spent.

"I think there's little trust from Australian taxpayers with their money going to big international consulting firms," he said.

As a partnership agency, the ACS provides money to the BOM and CSIRO to undertake the research that underpins their advice to government, industry and the public.

It's not clear whether the ACS will reallocate funding for the site's development away from BOM and CSIRO.

But a spokesperson from the ACS said, as the service matures, investment would be "increasingly focused" on making sure the strong science foundations were matched by the ability to translate them.

They said responsibility for the long-term maintenance and resourcing of Australia's core climate science sat with the BOM and CSIRO.

In a statement, the CSIRO said it was "committed to its portfolio of work delivered through the ACS" and that it would continue.

BOM also made assurances that there would be no impact on the amount of climate research capacity as a consequence of the new platform.

"The ACS is just one of several entities to which the Bureau provides climate science and research," a spokesperson said in a statement.

The biggest point of criticism was the new rain radar on the BOM's revamped site. (AAP Image/Nadir Kinani)

New contract 'considered track record'

The BOM launched its new website, which was also built by Accenture Australia, in October 2025 during an extreme weather event. It was widely criticised for its costs and poor design, including changes to its rain radar display.

Upon launch, the BOM said the website cost $4.1 million to reconfigure. But it has since been revealed that the real cost was approximately $96.5 million, owing to the cost of upgrading and testing its back-end systems.

Much of the cost can be attributed to the $78 million contract signed with Accenture, which initially started as a $31 million contract and grew across nine extensions.

During a Senate estimates hearing late last year, Greens senator Barbara Pocock described the broader program as a "nightmare Harvard case study in contract failure and management of contracts", specifically citing Accenture in her criticism.

"This is a firm that is famous for land and expand," she said.

BOM's chief information and technology officer, Nichole Brinsmead, defended the extensions, saying the full complexity of the program was not understood in the early days.

"I do take umbrage to some degree, in that I don't think these contracts were as badly managed as you make out," she said to Senator Pocock.

In the same hearing, Minister for Environment Murray Watt said it "may well be a contract that demonstrates the need for greater oversight of consultants, and greater use of public sector capacity wherever possible."

Greens senator Barbara Pocock believes the BOM website cost was a prime example of contract failure. (ABC News)

A spokesperson for the ACS said the decision to award Accenture the contract came after a comprehensive and competitive procurement process.

They said "strong due diligence" was applied when selecting the provider, including assessing the delivery track record.

"It was determined Accenture would provide the best value for money to the Commonwealth," the spokesperson said.

Worry about climate research

It comes at a time when climate science is increasingly under pressure, both at home and abroad.

In the US, President Donald Trump has taken the axe to the government workforce, with science and climate agencies taking major hits.

In Australia, the CSIRO is also facing significant cuts.

Most recently, it was announced that the organisation would lose up to 350 full-time equivalent jobs across its research units, including reports of over 100 job losses in their Environmental Research Unit.

Cuts to US weather and climate services will cause the loss of critical data Australia relies on.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, given this, Australian scientists would be "rightly questioning" what the government's priorities were.

"Scientists are going to be devastated if they hear that tens of millions of dollars are being spent on new web services when they're being told there's no money to pay for their salaries and for the critical science that they do," he said.

"[Science] which, by the way, feeds into Australian Climate Services and will be used on this website or updated web portal."

In an interview with the ABC in February, BOM chief executive and director of meteorology Stuart Minchin said he believed there was no reason to be concerned about the state of Australia's climate science.

"I think I'm very positive about the future of climate science in Australia and that there will be a continuing need for it. The exact way that gets funded into the future is a decision for the government and for the different agencies," he said.

"But I don't think it's doom and gloom around that. I think Australia plays a leadership role and will continue to in the future."

A CSIRO spokesperson said addressing the pressing problem of climate change remained a key focus for the organisation.

"The Environment Research Unit will remain one of CSIRO's largest Research Units and will continue to maintain focus on areas of greatest impact to deliver the strongest possible outcomes for Australia," it said.

"No decisions on proposed internal changes at CSIRO will be made until the formal consultation process has concluded."

— with the Climate Team's Jo Lauder and Fran Rimrod