Walter Nairn

Walter Maxwell Nairn (17 March 1879 12 December 1958) was an Australian politician. He 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. He was the Speaker of the House from 1940 to 1943.

Early life Nairn was born on 17 March 1879 in Alberton, Victoria. He was the third of four children born to Margaret (née Merritt) and William Nairn. His father, born in Scotland, died in 1890, placing the family into financial hardship.

Nairn attended South Melbourne College on a scholarship, matriculating in 1894. Faced with an economic depression in Victoria, he followed his brother William Ralph Nairn to Western Australia in 1896. He found employment as a proofreader with the Morning Herald, before joining The West Australian as a journalist. His experience as a court reporter led him to pursue a career in law, and he began working as a law clerk under barrister Norman Ewing.

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

During the Scullin government, Nairn followed the rest of the Nationalists into the new United Australia Party (UAP). He 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. He 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. He 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. He lost his seat to Labor candidate Tom Burke at the election.

Later life Nairn returned to his legal practice after his parliamentary defeat, and practised into the mid-1950s. He died in 1958, and was accorded a state funeral in Perth. His brother, William Ralph Nairn, was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly.