Alister Henskens SC MP Information

Alister was born, raised and schooled in Newcastle, NSW. His father immigrated to Australia from the Netherlands in 1951 while his mother was schooled in Ku-ring-gai. He moved to Sydney as an 18 year old to study at the University of Sydney, residing at St Andrew's College, and graduated with degrees in Economics and Law. In his last year at the University of Sydney, Alister won a prestigious Rotary Foundation Scholarship to study a Master of Laws Degree at the University of Toronto, Canada, where he met his wife, Nancy. Today Alister still finds time to indulge his passions of music and basketball. He has been a director of Basketball NSW and maintains a close association with the sport through management and coaching of junior teams. Alister has also served his local public school as a P & C President. Alister has entered public service through Parliament after a successful career as a Sydney Barrister since 1996. He was appointed a Senior Counsel in 2011 and has worked principally in the areas of general commercial, insolvency, banking, defamation, building and construction law. He was also Counsel Assisting the Equine Influenza Inquiry. Alister and Nancy have teenagers, a daughter and son, and have lived in the Ku-ring-gai area for around 20 years. Alister is deeply committed to keeping Ku-ring-gai a great place to live, whether it is to grow up, be educated, have a family or retire. In Alister's inaugural speech to Parliament he identified the operation of our Federation, the tax base of our State, privatisation, competition law, small business, the service industry, industrial practices and decentralisation as his areas of concern for the present and future of our state.