The CEO and director of the Bureau of Meteorology, Andrew Johnson, revealed to staff the cost of its delayed IT overhaul – one of Australia’s most expensive ever – despite repeatedly telling senators such details must be kept under wraps for cabinet secrecy reasons.
Johnson declined senators’ requests in October to disclose the cost of the bureau’s computer upgrade, labelled Robust. He again rejected such calls during Senate estimates on Tuesday, telling the South Australian Greens senator Barbara Pocock: “I wish I could tell you, but as a cabinet decision … I’m not at liberty to disclose those to you.”
However, in January 2023, Johnson detailed to staff the project’s initial and ongoing costs, according to a video of his speech at an Australia Day awards event seen by Guardian Australia.
“The initial program we got up – I think we can probably almost talk about it now – [was] nearly a billion dollars in funds, a billion dollars over four-ish years. It’s a huge amount of money especially for a little agency like us.
“So to even get to the starting blocks to get this quantum of investment required an enormous effort,” Johnson said. “In my experience, [it was] one of the largest, most comprehensive, multidisciplinary, whole of agency, whole of government efforts.”
Johnson then told staffers that “some of you will be aware” the bureau had secured “another billion in new funding over the decade ahead”. At the time of his speech, spending was already two years into the 10-year period, and was “starting off slow [but then] the serious money really kicks in”.
A bureau spokesperson said the Robust funding, provided in the 2017–18, 2018–19 and 2020–21 federal budgets “was listed as not-for-publication due to commercial sensitivities”.
“Dr Andrew Johnson’s comments to staff during the 2023 Australia Day Awards event were consistent with questioning from Senator Barbara Pocock during Senate estimates in October 2023,” the spokesperson said. “Dr Johnson did not disclose the exact cost of the funding in either of those discussions.”
The bureau’s answers are unlikely to satisfy senators who have been pressing the government and the bureau to state details of the Robust program. They have been particularly concerned about the secrecy involving the cost of outside consultants, as well as how spending overruns will compromise other services – such as providing extreme weather or bushfire warnings – if funds are reallocated.
Pocock told Guardian Australia that it was “extremely worrying” the cost of Robust was being kept secret even though the government could reveal the price of the Aukus nuclear submarines or even the F-35 strike fighter program.
“We’ve heard unconfirmed reports that the amount is around the $1bn mark, which is said to be three times the original budget for this project,” Pocock said. “Why on earth can’t we find out how much an IT project at the weather bureau will cost?
“We have plenty of evidence of the large consulting firms basically ripping off the public purse, overcharging for poor quality work by underqualified staff with huge delays on delivery,” she said.
Pocock said it seemed “absurd that the total amount can be shared widely within the BoM but not with those who foot the bill, the taxpayers and those they elect, the parliament”, adding the bureau should make the video available to the public.
The Tasmanian Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam said that if Johnson had “failed to be completely upfront with the Senate, then that is in defiance of the scrutiny and accountability that is incumbent on all public officials”.
“There are very serious questions to be answered about the Robust program, its costs and its consequences – and any evasion of those answers is nowhere near good enough,” he said. “All government agencies, including the BoM, have a responsibility to provide full and truthful answers to the parliament.”
Guardian Australia approached the office of Tanya Plibersek, the minister responsible for the bureau, for comment.
