When Amy Robinson warns, in February 2001, that her cabinet minister father is literally a fascist, the government and its media come after her. Amy is five months pregnant to Phil, and s he Phil and Phil’s mother Carys are picnicking at Old Adaminaby, where as child Carys watched the river drown her family cottage, as part of the Snowy hydro scheme.
They’re ambushed by two journos, who try to provoke them into saying or doing something stupid. When the photographer shouts at
Carys that she’s faking having cancer but if she did die she’d save taxpayer money, Phil punches him. Amy, who loathes violence, dumps Phil. When they get back to Sydney he’s arrested. But with help from his lawyer Cleon, and Linus, a Muse who may or may not exist, Phil plays the media game and makes himself into a likeable larrikin. Amy, with family issues of her own to sort out, withholds her judgment on that.