Gary Nairn

The Honourable Gary Nairn AO
Nairn in 2018
Special Minister of State
In office 27 January 2006 – 3 December 2007
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Eric Abetz
Succeeded by	John Faulkner
Member of the Australian Parliament for Eden-Monaro
In office 2 March 1996 – 24 November 2007
Preceded by	Jim Snow
Succeeded by	Mike Kelly
Personal details
Born	(1951-01-03)3 January 1951 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died	1 June 2024(2024-06-01) (aged 73) Queensland, Australia
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia
Children	2
Alma mater	University of New South Wales
Occupation	Surveyor

Gary Roy Nairn AO (3 January 1951 – 1 June 2024) was an Australian politician.

Early life

Nairn was born in Sydney on 3 January 1951, and was educated at Sydney Boys High School from 1963 to 1968 before attending University of New South Wales. He was a surveyor in private practice and managing director of a surveying and mapping consultancy before entering politics. He moved to the Northern Territory where he lived for many years. He was the President of the Country Liberal Party between 1990 and 1994, during which time the CLP won two elections with an increased vote.

Federal political career

Nairn returned to New South Wales and in March 1996, was elected a Liberal Party of Australia member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the seat of Eden-Monaro.

In 2003, he headed a federal inquiry into the 2003 Canberra bushfires. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister John Howard in October 2004. In January 2006, he was promoted to the front bench as Special Minister of State which included responsibilities with Ministerial and Parliamentary Services, the Australian Government Information Management Office, Australian Electoral Commission, Defence Housing Authority, and Film Australia. He served in Howard's outer ministry.

Nairn's hold on Eden-Monaro was always rather tenuous. For most of the time since the late 1960s, the seat has been highly marginal; it had been held by the party of government without interruption since 1972. Even in the midst of a massive swing to the Coalition in 2004, for instance, Nairn only managed a swing of 0.4 percent.

In the 2007 federal election, Nairn lost his seat to Labor candidate Mike Kelly. Nairn was one of five members of the Howard ministry to lose their seats at the election. Howard also lost his own seat of Bennelong.

Phelps-Kelly controversy

In September 2007, Nairn's chief of staff, Peter Phelps, engaged in a heated verbal exchange with the Labor Party candidate for Eden-Monaro, Mike Kelly at a forum on the Iraq War in Queanbeyan, New South Wales. At the meeting Phelps claimed that Mike Kelly was a hypocrite as a former soldier running for the ALP when they are opposed to the war in Iraq. Phelps stated at the meeting that he thought Kelly was using the Nuremberg defence, and compared it to the kind of defence used by guards at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Nairn did not agree with his staffer's sentiments.

SIBA

In 2012, Nairn was appointed the Chair of SIBA.

Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration (CSDILA), University of Melbourne

Nairn chaired the CSDILA Advisory Committee until his death.

Other

From 2018 to 2024, Nairn was the Chairman of The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award of Australia where he oversaw major restructuring and record growth in the use of the Duke of Edinburgh in Australia.

Personal life and death

Nairn was married to Rose. His first wife, Kerrie, died from cancer in 2005. They had 2 children.

Nairn died from cancer in Queensland, on 1 June 2024, at the age of 73.