23 Facts About Walter Nairn

Walter Maxwell Nairn was an Australian politician.

Walter Nairn was a member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1929 to 1943, representing the electorate of Perth for the Nationalist Party of Australia and its successor the United Australia Party.

Walter Nairn was the Speaker of the House from 1940 to 1943.

Walter Nairn was the third of four children born to Margaret and William Nairn.

Walter Nairn's father, born in Scotland, died in 1890, placing the family into financial hardship.

Walter Nairn attended South Melbourne College on a scholarship, matriculating in 1894.

Walter Nairn found employment as a proofreader with the Morning Herald, before joining The West Australian as a journalist.

In 1909, Walter Nairn was admitted to the bar and joined the firm of Penny, Hill and Walter Nairn as a partner.

Walter Nairn was elected to the North Perth Municipal Council in the same year.

Walter Nairn was an unsuccessful candidate for the state seat of North Perth at the 1911 state election.

Walter Nairn was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1929 federal election as a Nationalist in the seat of Perth, defeating incumbent and dissident former Nationalist member Edward Mann who had renominated as an independent.

Walter Nairn was "committed to the Nationalist platform of sound finance and rationalisation of the arbitration system" and promised to resist further tariff increases.

Walter Nairn served on the public works committee and as deputy chairman of committees, and was re-elected in 1931,1934,1937 and 1940.

Walter Nairn had a keen interest in parliamentary procedure and in standing orders, and in 1931 was critical of Speaker Norman Makin's decision to bar journalist Joe Alexander from the House chamber.

Walter Nairn opposed the Western Australian secession movement in the lead-up to the 1933 referendum, but considered the Lyons government's Commonwealth Grants Commission flawed and called for the re-establishment of the Inter-State Commission.

Walter Nairn was elected Speaker of the House after the 1940 election, unexpectedly winning a heavily contested partyroom ballot for the government nominee to succeed George John Bell, who had stepped down following the election.

Walter Nairn remained Speaker after the Menzies minority government was defeated in parliament and replaced by the Curtin Labor government, but resigned prior to the 1943 election to allow him to vote on a no-confidence motion.

Walter Nairn lost his seat to Labor candidate Tom Burke at the election.

Walter Nairn returned to his legal practice after his parliamentary defeat, and practised into the mid-1950s.

Walter Nairn died in 1958, and was accorded a state funeral in Perth.

Walter Nairn's brother, William Ralph Nairn, was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly.

Walter Nairn was widowed in 1904 and in 1905 remarried to Mary Bertram.

Walter Nairn was a member of Mount Lawley Golf Club and served as Vice President of the club in the late 1920s.