Overview
- Australia’s weather bureau said Tuesday that chief customer officer Peter Stone will retire, with his last working day on June 30, 2026 before extended leave and a formal exit early next year.
- He was acting CEO during last year’s website relaunch in severe storms, which left farmers and fishers struggling to find rain radar information until the bureau restored the old map.
- The total program cost later surfaced at about $96.5 million, driven by a $78 million Accenture deal that expanded from $31 million across nine extensions, which the bureau’s IT chief defended at a 2025 Senate hearing.
- Stuart Minchin became the permanent chief in November after the backlash, as Environment Minister Murray Watt pressed for better use of public money.
- A 2024 court ruling found the bureau had pushed out a senior manager in a “sham redundancy,” and the judge criticized Stone’s testimony, adding to concerns about governance and culture at the agency.