Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek says she does not "quite understand" the reasons behind the Bureau of Meteorology's rebranding exercise and is seeking urgent advice about the cost of the move.
On Tuesday morning, the agency asked media outlets to update their style guides and no longer refer to it as the "BOM" or the "Weather Bureau".
Instead, it wants reporters and presenters to use the full name of the Bureau of Meteorology in the first instance and "the Bureau" in subsequent references.
Some members of the federal government are baffled by the timing of the request, which comes as life-threatening floods affect Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania, and residents in Australia's eastern states are warned more rain is on the way.
The plans have been worked on for approximately 18-months but were criticised and mocked on social media.
"The rebrand commenced under the previous government for reasons I don't quite understand," Ms Plibersek said in a statement.
"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."
Unclear why the request was made now
In its note to media outlets, the bureau said it was crucial that the agency's information was "shared, understood and acted upon" and to ensure that it needed media outlets to support its style change.
"This aligns with the Meteorology Act 1955," the alert stated.
Editorial advisor for language at the ABC, Tiger Webb, said the request didn't entirely align with the Act, which actually refers to the agency as the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology.
The bureau also advised media outlets that it would be changing its main Twitter handle from @BOM_au to @TheBureau_au, with similar changes to come for its state pages.
It appears the bureau is yet to make those changes, and within minutes of the media alert being released, some of their desired Twitter handles were claimed by other people.
It wasn't made clear whether the bureau also wanted members of the public to stop referring to the agency as "BOM".
Mr Webb said "BOM" was a popular term for the agency because it was short and easy to say, and it also fits into headlines easier than "the Bureau".
Outside of editorial space constraints, he said another hurdle for the bureau in rebranding was the universality of the acronym.
The agency's mobile app is still called "BOM weather", though this is also likely to change.
"It's pretty universal for these kinds of changes to take a bit of time to be diffused out in the community but there's so much resistance to this one that I'm not so sure it will catch on," Mr Webb said.
He said the general practise of the ABC was to respect agencies' language preferences but also to monitor to current usage of language.
"We don't want to jump out ahead of people. We want our audiences to understand what we're talking about," Mr Webb said.
"And particularly in broadcast radio, 'the Bureau' is more ambiguous than 'BOM' as there are many bureaus.
"We will keep an eye on it, but we're not going to make any major changes right now."
The ABC has contacted the bureau for clarity around why the request for changes were made at this time.
The Bureau of Meteorology is one of the most widely used services funded by the government.
In its statement to media, the bureau described itself as, "Australia's authority on weather, climate, water, oceans and space weather information".
"Its expertise and services assist Australians in dealing with the harsh realities of their natural environment, including drought, floods, fires, storms, tsunami and tropical cyclones," the statement added.
