Abbott's high calling

His faith remains strong but the priesthood was never going to be enough for Anthony John Abbott.

Liberal politician Tony Abbott with his wife Margaret (Margie) and daughters Frances (L) and Bridget at the family home in Forestville, Sydney. Pic. Rohan Kelly

A WEEK ago, when Tony Abbott determined to run for the opposition leadership, he did what he has always done at a critical juncture in his life: he rang Emmet Costello.

A "somewhat retired" 85-year-old Jesuit priest,Costello was formerly the chaplain at St Ignatius College Riverview, on Sydney's north shore, where Abbott was schooled.

And for the past 35 years he has remained Abbott's mentor and closest confidant; a man he credits as "the most important male influence on my life" apart from his father.

"Tony rang and said, I'm going for it; I'm going for the leadership, and could you remember me in your prayers," Costello told The Australian yesterday.

"I said, don't worry about that, I'll storm Heaven for you. God can't say no to me!"

After Abbott's stunning one-vote victory in yesterday's leadership ballot, Costello jokes that "I'm to blame for a lot".

He is not alone in rejoicing in the accession, either.

Abbott's father, Dick Abbott, was overwhelmed by calls of congratulations yesterday.

He says that even when Tony was a young child, it was clear that he was destined for great things.

"A priest asked my wife (Fay) one day: what will Tony do with his life?" Dick Abbott told The Australian. "She said: `Well, he'll either be the pope or prime minister.'

"It was clear to us that two ordinary people had produced something out of the box."

Abbott's wife Margaret, currently bedridden with a disc problem in her back and on leave from her childcare job at St Ives Occasional Care, says she and their three daughters -- Louise, 20, Frances, 18, and Bridget, 16 -- are immensely proud of his elevation.

"It's very exciting. This is something that Tony has obviously thought about from time to time. He's been in politics for 16 years and here we are. We look forward to a very challenging year ahead," she says.

"People go into politics with vision and ideas and he certainly has both of those."

According to Costello, such vision and ideas have been apparent ever since they forged a bond when Abbott was in Year 11 at school, where the priest taught him history as well as religious instruction.

After Riverview, Abbott moved on to Sydney university, where he earned degrees in law and economics as well a reputation for his strident voice in student politics.

Costello then wrote Abbott's reference when he applied, successfully, for a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford in Britain, where he won two Blues in boxing and added a Masters in politics and philosophy to an impressive CV.

And in the years since, even in politics, he has regularly proffered his advice over dinner: mostly, he says, to urge the arch conservative and monarchist to mitigate his views, to become less dogmatic and more reflective.

But he says Abbott's desire -- and ability -- to be a leader is "in his blood".

"Deep down, I think Tony has always wanted to be leader. Even as a boy, in his sport, you could see it," says Costello, who has also known Malcolm Turnbull for many years through Lucy Turnbull's father, Tom Hughes QC.

"He's a very gifted guy, he's a man of outstanding integrity and depth of intellect.

"And he's realistic too, he knew didn't have the numbers. But it's come to him in full measure now."

But if Abbott has received some wise counsel throughout his adult life, it has been his wanderings from the teachings of the church that have garnered much of the attention he has attracted during his 16 years in the federal parliament, as well as the nickname the Mad Monk.

On returning to Australia at 24 with designs on becoming a Catholic priest, Abbott lasted in the seminary just three years. The vow of celibacy got the better of him.

"I saw the dark, so to speak," Abbott told The Australian's editor-at-large, Paul Kelly, in 2003.

"I did not have the life of prayer. I did not have the sense of a direct relationship with Jesus. I was too interested in politics. It just wasn't going to work."

For much of his adult life he also famously believed he had fathered a son out of wedlock with his first girlfriend, Kathy Donnelly, who had given up the child for adoption as both were opposed to abortion.

That son, the sound recordist Daniel O'Connor, made contact with his mother in 2005, which forced Abbott -- by then a married father of three -- to confront his past.

But even though it later emerged via a DNA test that another teenage squire had been the father, Abbott, as is his style, refused to paper over the cracks in his personal life.

"I got cold feet. I was too young and, frankly, too confused for that responsibility," he wrote in his 2009 book Battlelines."

I had let her down, badly, so after the birth we went our separate ways."

Whether it's detailing his sexual misdemeanours, or confessing to the "mortgage stress" that resulted from losing a $90,000 ministerial allowance when the Howard government was dumped from power, he is never less than forthright and self-effacing.

But such straight talk has also caused him -- and the Liberals -- no end of angst.

It is perhaps ironic, given his stints as a journalist with The Bulletin and The Australian (where he also wrote editorials) and a later job as the press secretary and adviser to John Hewson when he was leader of the opposition.

One of his more famous gaffes came during the 2007 election campaign when the late asbestosis campaigner Bernie Banton tried to deliver a petition to his electorate office in Manly.

Arriving only to find Abbott absent, Banton accused him of being "gutless".

"I know Bernie is very sick, but just because a person is sick doesn't mean that he is necessarily pure of heart in all things," Abbott responded, while characterising the event as a stunt.

It ignited another media storm, but there was more to come.

The very next day his bad fortunes continued, arriving more than 30 minutes late to a nationally televised debate with his Labor counterpart, now the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon.

After the debate, he was heard rebutting Roxon's suggestion he could have arrived earlier by saying "that's bullshit".

But the Member for Warringah, now 52, is acutely aware of such shortcomings, even when asked to articulate his political ambitions.

"We are all promoted to our own level of incompetence," he once quipped to The Australian."So sooner or later mine will be reached."

Whether the former concrete plant manager, journalist and press secretary has reached that level remains to be seen, but those closest to him were yesterday celebrating that he had climbed another rung.

John McGee, one of Abbott's closest friends since university who shares a love of cycling, says he is confident Abbott would "rise to the challenge" of leadership.

He noted that unlike his public persona, Abbott was a decent and compassionate man and a good

listener too.

"He's a fantastic straight-forward loyal friend. And he's got a rump of school and uni mates and not everyone echoes his opinions, believe me. He can see the other side of an argument.

"And when we're on a pedal [cycling trip], he's always the first to turn back and ride with the strugglers. You don't often hear the media say it about him, but he really does care."

The congratulations were also extended by Abbott's political mentor, the former prime minister John Howard.

"Tony is a person of high intelligence, great energy and has a broad policy understanding in both social and economic areas," Howard said in a statement in which he also commiserated with Malcolm Turnbull.

"His previous political and journalistic experience will be of great value in his new and challenging role."

And as for Costello, he is nothing if not confident that Abbott will have learned from his own mistakes.

"I honestly believe that," he says.

"Tony has made mistakes, we have all made mistakes. But I am confident he has learnt a lot in the last 12 months, and I am confident he will learn even more in the next 12 months."