Abbott’s tutor looks likely to claim Hawthorn for Labor

He taught a young Tony Abbott history in the 1970s, but now John Ormond Kennedy is making history of his own.

John Kennedy, who ran for the federal seat of Kooyong in the 2013, at home in Hawthorn, Melbourne, yesterday. Picture: David Geraghty.

He taught a young Tony Abbott history at St Ignatius Riverview in the 1970s, but now John Ormond Kennedy is making history of his own — for the Labor Party — in the once-safe Liberal state seat of Hawthorn.

The 71-year-old semi-retired education consultant, former school principal and father of two is 173 votes ahead of Liberal frontbencher John Pesutto, who has all but conceded defeat pending a routine recount.

While their politics are vastly different, Mr Kennedy remembers Mr Abbott as lively and highly intelligent during the four years they shared a classroom, joking that friends on the Left accuse him of being responsible for his former student’s trajectory to The Lodge.

“People would hope I’d say I taught him maths or something, but to actually teach him history, ideology, that sort of thing … I ­remember him as a very bright student, and he came second in the state in modern history in Year 12,” Mr Kennedy said.

He was magnanimous when asked about Mr Pesutto, who would have been a serious contender to be the next Victorian Liberal leader had he held ­Hawthorn.

“I think he’s a very fine person. I think he was effective as a local member. I’m thinking that he’ll be a hard act to follow,” Mr Kennedy said.

“I thought, actually, that’d be another reason why I wouldn’t do as well, because he’s held, deservedly so, in high regard.”

Mr Kennedy said it wasn’t until he sat down to watch the ABC’s election night coverage in the retirement village apartment he shares with wife Bronwyn that he realised he had a chance of snaring the seat, which has not been held by Labor since 1955.

He later attended an unexpectedly jubilant election-night party with colleagues from the neighbouring electorates of Box Hill, Burwood and Kew, with Labor now holding three of the four leafy eastern suburban seats.

“My aim was basically to ­enhance Labor in this affluent area of Hawthorn,” he said.

“I felt things were good along the way, but I never felt they were that good.”

Labor has secured an 8.9 per cent overall swing in Hawthorn, destroying Mr Pesutto’s 8.7 per cent margin, in a win Mr Kennedy attributes to a positive campaign from Premier Daniel Andrews, a law-and-order pitch from the Coalition that he says did not go down well in Hawthorn, and hours spent having face-to-face conversations with voters.

As the third-most-famous John Kennedy in Hawthorn after the AFL father and son legends, Mr Kennedy said he used his ­middle name on the ballot paper to differentiate himself from his namesakes, avoiding any accu­sations that he got over the line on votes from Hawks fans. He conceded state parliament would be a change of pace after years of semi-retirement and extensive travel, and said he would prioritise finding young, competent staff to help him.

“I’m very average on IT skills, so I’ve got to get someone who’s really able to work well with IT,” he said.

He has never held a driver’s ­licence and says his two biggest policy priorities are education and public transport.

He ran against Josh Frydenberg in the federal seat of Kooyong in the 2013 election.