The consulting firm behind the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) heavily criticised website has been awarded another multi-million-dollar government contract to build a new climate platform.
Thu 26 Mar 2026 14.00
Photo: AAP Image/Nadir Kinani
The consulting firm behind the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) heavily criticised website has been awarded another multi-million-dollar government contract to build a new climate platform.
Accenture Australia was responsible for the $96 million redesign that was described as a “diabolical shitshow” by Greens spokesperson for Science, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson.
The site was rolled out in October 2025 and triggered a barrage of complaints, with BoM’s acting chief executive, Dr Peter Stone forced to apologise for “the challenges the change has caused.”
Senator Whish-Wilson said the decision “beggars belief”.
The new contract is valued at almost $16 million, but critics are already forecasting another blowout.
“Last year, BoM launched a website that it originally said would cost $4 million, that actually cost $96 million,” pointed out Bill Browne, the Director of Democracy & Accountability Program at the Australia Institute.
“$78 million of that went straight to Accenture, after the original $31 million contract was ‘extended’ nine times.”
The company is now responsible for delivering a new site for the Australian Climate Service (ACS), which was established by the Commonwealth in 2021.
It provides a central hub for climate risk data, intelligence and expert advice and is delivered by the BoM, CSIRO, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Geoscience Australia.
“Australians deserve to get bang for their buck, not another bungle. This is expensive déjà vu,” said Senator Barbara Pocock, the Greens spokesperson for finance, public sector and employment.
It comes as the CSIRO prepares to announce up to 350 job cuts.
This is on top of the 800 positions already slashed over the past 18 months.
“Scientists will be rightly distraught 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 critical science research,” said Senator Whish-Wilson.
“It would be a national disgrace if even a cent was taken away from the Australian Climate Service’s capacity to carry out science because of the government’s new contract with Accenture.”
Science Minister Tim Ayres told the National Press Club in Canberra this week that the cuts are “difficult but necessary”.
The Canberra Times reported he acknowledged the “human consequences”.
Ming Long and Dr Doug Hilton, the Chair and Chief Executive of the CSIRO, attended the address, with the minister recognising “the challenging but necessary work of reform and renewal they are leading at our national science agency”.
The Greens have challenged the Albanese Government to find the funding needed to avoid more job cuts, pointing to the $368 billion AUKUS nuclear submarine deal and millions in subsidies handed to mining companies.
“In the midst of a climate crisis, $16 million could usefully be used to keep CSIRO scientists employed,” said Senator Pocock.
The Australia Institute’s Bill Browne said the spending reflected a broader pattern.
“Consulting firms are very good at putting in a competitive tender. Then, when the client is hooked and can’t say no without losing the whole project, coming back for more and more money,” he said.
He said the Albanese Government has made “some positive steps ‘insourcing’ work” but it is still spending hundreds of millions of dollars on consulting firms.
“Not only that,” he said, “the Government keeps going back to the same dodgy or incompetent suppliers”.
He pointed to the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) scandal in 2023 which saw more than 700 staff and dozens of partners leave the firm, including chief executive Tom Seymour.
“Labor has quickly forgiven PwC for misusing government information to help multinationals avoid paying tax and shows no interest in changing the rules so unethical suppliers are banned – as they are in Western Australia and in other democracies around the world,” he said.
“Whether it’s Accenture or PwC, the Government apparently cannot stop touching the same hot plate however many times it gets burned.”
So much of what passes for Australian political discourse relies on existential threats. It’s easy to make grandiose statements and take positions when the threat is some amorphous vague maybe that could possibly happen.
Advertisement
On Saturday, South Australians voted decisively to re-elect the first-term Malinauskas Labor Government. While we don’t know exactly how the 47 lower house seats will fall, Labor will have a super-majority having won about 35 seats.
With South Australia in its final week of campaigning ahead of the state election, you may have noticed while there’s been a few scandals around mistaken identity of hospital patients and controversial candidates’ opinions, accusations of politicians lying are muted.
