Finance Department boffins have lived their own version of an episode of Utopia, with a video designed to attract graduate recruits coming under scrutiny in Senate estimates yesterday. Liberal Senator James Paterson acknowledged to Finance secretary Rosemary Huxtable that the video wasn’t the most substantial of issues facing the department, but he pushed ahead with asking how and why the video was made and how much it had cost.

Turns out $40,000 gets you the most awkward and badly acted video you could find — featuring our very own best and brightest in the department. Paterson asked (and we’re so glad he did) just how the script was written, especially a line about “paleo pear and banana bread”. Turns out that was a bit of improv from the staff members involved. You need to watch the video to see for yourself, but it shows that our Finance public servants are in their gigs (and not walking the red carpet) for a reason.