Utopia season 5, episode 5 recap: The APS-ministerial language barrier

Staff at the Nation Building Authority are up against that language barrier in season 5, episode 5 of Utopia: Lights, Cameras, Inaction.

Minister for Amazing Ideas Brad Harper (played by Mike McLeish) has an amazing idea: Hollywood Down Under. A five-thousand-hectare studio complex, tax breaks, producer offsets, access to public lands.

Agency head Tony Woodford (played by Rob Sitch) has some concerns, the whole thing will need a tonne of work. Or in ministerial speak: "Tweaks".

It's still early days of course, but also the Prime Minister has just retweeted the project plans, and the submission will be with Cabinet at the end of the week.

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Tony has forgotten his lessons in ministerial speak and is floundering. He tries to raise some "issues" with the minister, but that doesn't carry across the boardroom table well.

Correction: He has "concerns", or "questions". They land back on "tweaks".

"The point is I think we should stop," Tony tells the minister, in a moment of frank but not entirely fearless advice.

Clarification: "Take the time to get this right."

Chief operating officer Nat Russell (Celia Pacquola) is also experiencing some translation difficulties with PR manager Rhonda Stewart (Kitty Flanagan).

UNESCO has just slammed the Australian government, again, for its lack of action to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

It's the headache that won't go away, Rhonda tells Nat. They've tried it all: donations, lobbying, calling in favours, threats.

"I meant, what have we done in terms of protecting the reef?" Nat clarifies.

In the midst of the confusion, Tony also discovers he's not TikTok literate after he's dragged onto the NBA's new account by assistant Scott Byrnes (Dave Lawson).

It's all to make the department look like a more attractive place to work (Wasn't that what the table tennis table was for?).

Tony is, of course, quickly made the subject of a number of satirical remixes.

Public servants will spot the uncharacteristic inaccuracy in the show: TikTok was banned from most bureaucrats' work devices in May.

Tony's concerns about the Hollywood Down Under project aren't exactly lost in translation, but his invite to the launch is lost in the mail.

In a phrase which transcends the boundaries of APS and ministerial speak: He gets ghosted.

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