TRANSCRIPT – FIVEAA BREAKFAST

Angie Bell MP

Shadow Minister for the Environment

Shadow Minister for Youth

Federal Member for Moncrieff

TRANSCRIPT

FIVEAA BREAKFAST

25 November 2025

Subjects: BOM bungle.

E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………………

WILL GOODINGS:

The Bureau website, and we’ve thus far found one person who thinks it’s good. That’s just a user interface review. The serious side of this is things like Port Pirie, where a destructive storm swept through and nobody saw it coming. The Bureau didn’t see it coming. The Mayor in Port Pirie has been scathing of the Bureau. The Premier too I thought was pretty forthright in his commentary about how disappointing it was that this wasn’t picked up. With all this money being expended at the Weather Bureau, should we be expecting better? The Federal Shadow Environment Minister, Angie Bell, joins us on FIVEAA Breakfast. Angie Bell, good morning to you.

ANGIE BELL:

Good morning, boys. Great to be with you again in South Australia.

DAVID PENBERTHY:

So, what’s the response been from the Federal Government about the cost? Like, have they said that they need to look at, you know, how much money was spent? Have they confirmed that there was a tender process?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, look, can I firstly just say that my heart goes out to the residents in Port Pirie who have been affected by this terrible storm. I’ve seen the damage there. It wasn’t predicted, and here we are again talking about the failures of Murray Watt and his department who have failed to oversee this website upgrade. And at a cost of 90, what did you say, $96 million?

DAVID PENBERTHY:

Mm, 96.

ANGIE BELL:

I mean, that’s just utterly outrageous. And again, it’s happened under Murray Watt’s watch.

DAVID PENBERTHY:

But how can, the thing I don’t really understand, Angie Bell, is 96 million really just the website part of it? Or was the website a component of 96 million that was spent on other stuff too?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, these are questions that will be answered next week in Senate Estimates when we have another week here in Canberra, for Senators to ask the Bureau exactly why and how they’ve spent this much money under Tanya Plibersek’s watch as well. Because it was started, of course, when she was Minister. And now we’ve got Murray Watt, who’s overseeing department who’s made such a mess of this upgrade. And so, this is just another example of Labor’s gross misuse, as you said in your introduction, of South Australian taxpayer dollars.

DAVID PENBERTHY:

It’s also pretty much exactly the same amount of money that all of those marine scientists asked both the Environment Ministers, Tanya Plibersek and her successor Murray Watt for to research algal bloom two and a half, three years ago, when they knew that the writing was on the wall with that.

ANGIE BELL:

Well, there’s not just that, if you consider it under the environment portfolio, but I mean, I’m sure South Australians, like everyone else around the country, are really struggling to pay their bills at the moment. And $96 million would go a long way relief for that. Instead, it’s been wasted money, a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars, to update a website that was missing in action and didn’t predict the storm that affected Port Pirie and its residents.

WILL GOODINGS:

Will questions also be put to the Weather Bureau boss about forecast accuracy? Are there concerns in Canberra about that as well? I mean, Port Pirie’s a pretty galling example of inaccuracy, but broadly speaking, are there other concerns?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, there will be lots of questions that the Bureau will have to answer next week in Senate estimates when the Senators get the opportunity from all sides, of all stripes, of politics to ask the questions to highlight exactly what went wrong and to investigate.

DAVID PENBERTHY:

Plenty of questions to be asked and hopefully answered. Angie Bell, the Federal Shadow Environment Minister, thank you for joining us.

ANGIE BELL:

Thank you.

ENDS.