‘Like polling booth Survivor Island’: Hawthorn candidates exhausted as pre-poll comes to an end

It’s just before 10am at the Camberwell RSL, where three of the four candidates who could realistically win the marginal seat of Hawthorn have been since the pre-polling booth here opened at 8am, handing how-to-vote cards to voters.

Labor MP John Kennedy arrives a little while later on the 75 tram (Kennedy doesn’t drive). All are exhausted after months of campaigning.

John Pesutto (centre) handing out at the Camberwell pre-polling centre.Credit: Justin McManus

The most energetic is John Pesutto, the Liberal trying to win the seat back from Kennedy after losing it on live television in 2018. If Pesutto holds off teal challenger Melissa Lowe it will be thanks to a year-long campaign he’s run across Hawthorn, Camberwell, Surrey Hills and Canterbury – the suburbs that make up this well-heeled electorate of almost 50,000 voters.

“We’ve got to 80 per cent of the electorate door-knocking,” says Pesutto who, with wife Betty, did much of the work, along with volunteers. “It was very much a voter-contact, community grassroots campaign.”

If Pesutto loses, so too will go the hopes of those who want him to lead the party if it remains in opposition after Saturday. Asked his priority if re-elected, the 52-year-old says he hasn’t focused on it, “because there’s this big question about what happens tomorrow”.

He says issues with Liberal candidates during the campaign – including the party’s number one pick for the eastern Victoria upper house being linked to an ultra-conservative church opposed to gay, trans and reproductive rights – doesn’t seem to have hurt him. “It hasn’t really reflected what I’m hearing from voters.”

Melissa Lowe (centre) talks to a voter at the Camberwell pre-polling centre. Credit: Justin McManus

For palpably exhausted Lowe, the upside of three months hard slog is having “met so many beautiful people”.

In the campaign’s final fortnight, Lowe has been at railway stations from 7am handing out flyers before heading to pre-poll centres that are open from 8am until 8pm. She and most of the candidates are there for the duration.

“It feels like polling booth Survivor Island. I’m getting off the island soon,” Lowe jokes.

If Lowe wins on Saturday, the 52-year-old says it will be because of her focus on integrity in politics during the campaign. “[The lack of] integrity in politics is part of why we log native forests, it’s part of the reason we haven’t done anything on climate action. The major parties are captured by vested interests and integrity is a massive issue.”

Greens candidate for Hawthorn Nick Savage at pre-poll.

Greens candidate Nick Savage is also at Camberwell when The Age visits on Friday morning and, having done weeks of door-knocking and handing out flyers, says pre-poll has been the toughest part of the campaign.

“I’m on my feet for 12 hours a day,” says the 25-year-old, but at least Hawthorn’s pre-polling centres have been well-behaved, unlike in other seats where fist-fights have broken out. “Here it’s been pretty civil, pretty nice. It’s very Hawthorn.”

In the unlikely event of preferences somehow falling his way and the Greens taking the seat, Savage says his first speech would have one focal point: “Politicians are paid way too much. We can’t be representative if we are elevated above the average person.”

Labor’s John Kennedy, a 75-year-old who came out of retirement after winning Hawthorn unexpectedly in 2018, says running for office this time is much more serious. “In 2018 I didn’t really take myself seriously as a candidate. I didn’t think there was any chance. I just thought it was important that Labor be seen in all suburbs.”

John Kennedy greets voters at the Camberwell pre-poll centre.Credit: Justin McManus

Pundits have all but written off Kennedy’s chances of retaining the seat this time.

“[ABC election analyst] Antony Green says ‘unlikely’, which is just a different nuance to being written off,” Kennedy jokes.

But Kennedy says he has worked assiduously over his four years to retain the seat.

“You just never know which way preferences are going to go, particularly with the Greens and the teals. That’s why I’m here now: because of the Greens,” says Kennedy, leaning over to Savage standing beside him.

“These are my best buddies the Greens, they got me here and they can keep me here. It’s not impossible.”

Kennedy says among the policies that will help him keep his job is Labor’s promise to recreate the State Electricity Commission to give the public control of energy again.

Kennedy doesn’t drive and proudly gets the train and tram to most places.

Asked if they should be brought back into public operation also when current contracts expire in 2024, Kennedy says he wouldn’t be opposed.

“I wouldn’t be pushing for it but I wouldn’t be against it either. I’m just a humble user when it comes to public transport,” he said.

This story is part of our in-depth local coverage of the key seats of Melton, Hawthorn and Richmond at the November state election.

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