Jason Falinski

Falinski was born on 24 August 1970 in Manly, New South Wales.[1] He is the oldest of four children born to Jill (née Brittain-White) and Stanley Falinski. His father was born in Soviet Kyrgyzstan to Jewish parents originally from Poland and Russia, who had been subject to Soviet population transfers during World War II. His father's family immigrated to Australia from Poland in 1958 to escape post-war antisemitism.[2] On his mother's side, he has English and Irish heritage.[3]

Falinski attended Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview, then graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics. He later completed an MBA at the Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW Sydney.[4][5] He and his brother Tim worked for computer retailer Osborne,[6] of which his father was a co-founder and managing director until its collapse in 1995. After entering politics, Falinski attributed the company's failure to the ALP's economic policies and the early 1990s recession, stating that "the bank took our family home" as a result of the collapse. Contemporary reporting instead attributed the company's failure to "a range of non-recessionary causes",[7] with the administrator stating that "the problems of the company have been largely self-inflicted by the management".[6]

Falinski was a president of the New South Wales branch of the Young Liberals in 1994–1995.[8] Later he would serve as the Vice-President, in 1996–1996, and President, in 1997–1998, of the Australian Young Liberals.[9] He was formerly the chief executive of CareWell Health.[4]

Falinski has been involved in parliamentary politics for more than twenty years, including as an adviser to former Liberal leaders John Hewson and Barry O'Farrell,[10] and was a spokesperson for the Australian Republican Movement.[11] Falinski formerly sat on Warringah Council (elected September 2008).[12]

In April 2016, Falinski won a preselection battle over the incumbent member, former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, to represent the Liberal Party of Australia at the 2016 Australian election in the safe Liberal seat of Mackellar.[13][14]