It was in its second season that Ricky Gervais’ already-brilliant Britcom Extras really came into its own.

The first series had mock-documented a gaggle of despondent actors as they sought to break out of the interminable round of auditions and bit-parts, and into mainstream success.

In the second series though, Gervais’s character, Andy Milman, finally finds the success he craves, when his pilot TV show “When The Whisle Blows” is green-lit … only for him to realise his holy grail is an empty vessel.

His vision of making a gritty slice of social realism is twisted by studio executives and his own innate desire for approbation into a camp Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em-style sitcom, replete with silly wigs and his ubiquitous catchphrase: “Are you ‘avin a laugh? Is ‘e ‘aving a laugh?”

By the denouement, his dream of becoming his generation’s De Niro has been replaced by the hollow realisation that he will instead be remembered for an irritating soundbite.

Glib soundbites are the stuff of modern politics. One wishes on occasion that politicians would display a hint of the pathos and self-awareness that Milman had when he delivered his ridiculous slogan for the umpteenth time.

Yesterday, Tony Abbott delivered his budget pitch to an Adelaide business audience of around 1200. His patois was confident and assured, even if the soliloquy was well-practised; he had delivered much the same speech many times over since Budget Day, down to the “revelation” about Downton Abbey being his favourite show (though the fact he had time to catch an episode in budget week is perhaps a minor concern.)

The PM flew into something of a diplomatic storm in SA, with his local ministers being locked in an increasingly volatile war of words with the State Government, in particular its resident headkicker Tom Koutsantonis.

Last month, before flying off to COAG, Jay Weatherill notably shifted his rhetoric on the Coalition, telling InDaily “we need Abbott to succeed”.

He’s right, of course, if not economically, then certainly politically. Much of Weatherill’s electoral success has been predicated on Abbott’s local unpopularity.

But whether by design or impetuousness, the détente is now well and truly over.

It hasn’t been an edifying display on either side; Federal Infrastructure Minister Jamie Briggs called Koutsantonis a “lunatic”, Christopher Pyne called Weatherill a “bovver boy” and the Premier warmed to the role by declaring “we’re gonna take his seat off him”.

But, that’s all fine, I guess. Let them have their soundbites.

It’s when the public policy is debased to satisfy the politicking that we should be truly concerned.

Earlier this year, Koutsantonis released a Treasury discussion paper into state taxation reform.

Everything is on the table, he assured us.

That, as it turned out, was a soundbite worthy of Andy Milman.

This week, he took the marquee proposal off the table.

The discussion paper put conveyance duty (primarily stamp duty) on the block, arguing it is “generally considered one of the least efficient taxes” and enthusing that “replacing conveyance duty with another tax on property is generally considered most equitable as it would balance any impacts on asset prices associated with tax reform”.

On Wednesday, after the usual months of silliness about not being able to pre-empt his own budget, Koutsantonis predictably pre-empted his own budget.

“I can now rule out a broad-based land tax,” he said.

So, with little explanation, other than a coy “you’ll have to wait until Budget Day”, the Treasurer has scrapped the central tenet of his “bold” taxation review.

Is ‘e ‘avin a laugh?

The impetus for the declaration appeared to be the fact that his federal counterpart Joe Hockey was in town, and had cottoned on to Labor’s apparent reformist zeal and stated enthusiasm for replacing stamp duty with a broad-based land tax, appearing to endorse both in an interview with News Corp.

Koutsantonis, ridiculously, seized on his remarks, tweeting that because the “SA Labor Govt rules out a broad based land tax on the family home”, it was “only Joe Hockey and the Libs promoting that policy” now.

It was, at best, deliberately misleading, and at worst something I’m safer not printing here.

Steven Marshall was the first out of the blocks back in February to declare that “the Liberal Party will never support introducing a new land tax on family homes”.

Indeed, I gave him some stick about it, given he was a long-time campaigner for tax reform.

The Liberals’ position on this has been unequivocal. Koutsantonis’s grandstanding on the issue is not merely disingenuous, it puts politics before policy.

Is ‘e ‘avin a laugh?

The irony is, we already have a broad-based land tax, and his announcement about not introducing one came amid a media conference to confirm it was actually going up.

The spin around the Emergency Services Levy was targeted and deliberate – the Government spread the notion that January’s Sampson Flat bushfire had blown out the annual emergency services budget.

It was a good soundbite.

But the thing is, when the Government scrapped the ESL remission last year, it effectively levelled a new tax on the family home.

It imposed a new cost – a significant one – and offered no new commensurate service.

The Government tells me the quantum of the remission was set annually by cabinet, but it’s safe to assume that when the ESL went up, so did the remission.

So in increasing the ESL take by $20 million, Koutsantonis has effectively increased his general revenue as well.

Is ‘e ‘avin a laugh?

His standard refrain, much like an Andy Milman catchphrase, is that the ESL is a hypothecated fund, set each year based on funding requirements for emergency services organisations.

That, too, is disingenuous, as it implies that the levy amount will fluctuate up and down from year to year. But as he admitted this week, it has never fluctuated down. Only up.

Is ‘e ‘avin a laugh?

Disingenuous, also, is the strategy of deflecting the negative publicity for the hike onto the state’s emergency services, blaming their budget bids and funding requirements, when CFS volunteers have been among most vociferous opponents of the levy increase.

One suspects Koutsantonis is doing what Treasurers are wont to do — getting the bad news out the way so they don’t detract from his sweeteners on Budget Day.

But after the sound and significant fury of this Government’s recent rhetoric, this Budget deserves intense scrutiny; the Treasurer has already hinted this week that his promised bold reform has ended up in shallow, political compromise. Much like that poor old sitcom within a sitcom, this budget could well turn into a pale parody of itself.

And Koutsantonis could become South Australia’s own Andy Milman.

Because Treasurer, you are ‘avin a laugh.

Tom Richardson is a senior journalist at InDaily. His political column is published on Fridays.