BoM paid communication consultants almost $70,000 to rebrand it ‘the Bureau’

The Bureau of Meteorology paid an external communications consultancy almost $70,000 to rebrand it “the Bureau” with staff claiming they were treated like “naughty schoolchildren” if they slipped up and referred to it as “the BoM”.

Environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said on Tuesday she did not “quite understand” why the Bureau commenced a rebrand to update its name and logo, saying she was not focused on those factors during the severe flooding across much of the eastern seaboard.

She is understood to have asked for advice about the cost of the move.

The Bureau on Tuesday sent a media release asking outlets nationwide to update their internal style guides and refer to the agency as “the Bureau”, rather than the widely used acronym “BoM”. Emails from the Bureau also carry a new updated logo, with an outline of Australia overlaid with lines from a synoptic chart.

The name change – which has been broadly ridiculed, and criticised for its rollout as many Australians face devastating floods – was, in part, driven by Jack Walden, according to insiders. Walden appears to have won the contract for the consultancy company, and been hired by the Bureau shortly afterwards.

In September 2021, the Bureau awarded a $69,300 contract to the C Word Communications Agency for “branding of product naming services and “brand implementation”.

C Word’s “chief communicator” until December 2021 was Jack Walden.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Walden started as senior manager, communications delivery at the Bureau in November 2021. The crossover in his employment dates has not been explained.

Guardian Australia understands the rebrand was broadly unpopular among existing staff, but that the Bureau insisted that not only it be implemented, but that staff only use the new terms.

One insider said they were made to use the new term, and another said they were treated “like naughty schoolchildren” if they slipped up and referred to the BoM instead.

Plibersek told Guardian Australia that “during this time of severe weather and flood disaster, I’m not focused on the name of the agency”.

“I am focused on making sure the Bureau of Meteorology is providing the most accurate and timely information to communities affected by floods,” she said.

“The rebrand commenced under the previous government for reasons I don’t quite understand.”

The Bureau seemed to indicate that severe weather events were in some way linked to the rebrand.

“With an ever increasing number of severe weather events, it is more crucial than ever that the Bureau of Meteorology’s insights, wisdom, data and information are shared, understood and acted upon,” it said in a statement.

“To support this need, the Bureau of Meteorology asks that media outlets update editorial style to ensure references to the organisation are by its full name, the Bureau of Meteorology or the Bureau for short, and not BOM or the Weather Bureau. This aligns with the Meteorology Act 1955 … please update your style guides accordingly.”

The announcement on Tuesday included the intention to update the Bureau’s Twitter account names, which prompted a flood of Twitter users to get there first, snapping up names such as @TheBureau_NSW and @TheBureau_Qld.

Guardian Australia has contacted the Bureau and Walden for comment.