‘Real Eel’ Maria Kovacic hits back at Labor’s claims she’s not a Westie

Parramatta Liberal Maria Kovacic says those claiming she’s not from the West are out-of-towners themselves - like blow-in Labor candidate Andrew Charlton.

The Coalition’s hand-picked candidate for Parramatta has hit back at a Labor smear campaign suggesting she is not a local, saying “the only people who are suggesting I am not from Western Sydney are themselves not from Western Sydney”.

Maria Kovacic, the 52 year old businesswoman turned politician said that it was ridiculous that people who were not from the area were trying to decide whether she was a legitimate local.

“You know, I think people in Western Sydney in particular are tired of people that aren’t from Western Sydney telling them what they should do, how they should do it, and why they should do,” she said.

Ms Kovacic has faced criticism from Labor figures for living a scant 1800m outside the Parramatta electorate ever since questions began to be raised about her opponent, Bellevue Hill entrepreneur Andrew Charlton, and his inability to name three eateries in the restaurant-packed district.

However Ms Kovacic points to the fact that she has lived most of her adult life in western Sydney and operated a finance business delivering loans to local homeowners and businesspeople to the fact that she is – as Prime Minister Scott Morrison famously quipped – “the real eel”.

Maria Kovacic

As proof of her devotion to the area, she points to a letter she wrote “when I was about 14 or 15” to Rugby League Week and was a diehard Parramatta fan, despite living in the Canberra area at the time.

Clipped and filed in the family archives, the letter defended the Eels from who said that “Parramatta are sure to be write-offs in the ’85 season”.

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Meanwhile, Labor’s Andrew Charlton couldn’t name three local restaurants.

Ms Kovacic, who lives with her husband, children and stepchildren in what she calls “a beautiful blended family” that is “as close to the Brady Bunch as you can get without singing songs,” said that her experience growing up the daughter of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia and having to learn English at school made her more aware than ever of the need to help others in the community.

Along with her friend, businesswoman and speaker Amanda Rose, Ms Kovacic set up Western Sydney Women.

“Effectively, we advocate, we’ve set up a structure, we have members, and we create opportunities and advocate for women and girls in Western Sydney,” she said.

Ms Kovacic said that on the streets she hears people mostly concerned about cost of living, infrastructure, and their desire for a hopeful economic future.

“At the end of the day, people are juggling kids, they’re juggling families, they might be juggling a job or a small business,” she said, making a pitch for stability under the Coalition.

“They don’t want to be thinking about do I have to worry about who’s in charge, and then they’re gonna stuff it up?”