Kevin Michael Kiernan Cairns (15 May 1929 – 6 July 1984), Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician and Minister for Housing.

Cairns was born and educated in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. He qualified as a dentist and once in parliament also gained degrees in arts and economics. At the 1963 election he was elected as the Liberal

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 member of the House of Representatives

Australian House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....

 seat of Lilley

Division of Lilley

The Division of Lilley is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. The division was first proclaimed in 1913. The division is named after Sir Charles Lilley, a former Premier of Queensland and a former Chief Justice in the Supreme Court of Queensland....

 in Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

. He was Minister for Housing

Minister for Housing (Australia)

The Australian Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness is Mark Arbib, who was appointed on 14 September 2010, following the Labor Party's win at the 2010 election...

 in the junior ministry

McMahon Ministry

The McMahon Ministry was the forty-seventh Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 10 March 1971 to 5 December 1972.Liberal Party of Australia–Australian Country Party Coalition-Cabinet:*Rt Hon William McMahon, MP: Prime Minister...

 of William McMahon

William McMahon

Sir William "Billy" McMahon, GCMG, CH , was an Australian Liberal politician and the 20th Prime Minister of Australia...

 from 22 March 1971 to the defeat of the McMahon government at the 1972 election

Australian federal election, 1972

Federal elections were held in Australia on 2 December 1972. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election. The Liberal Party of Australia had been in power since 1949, under Prime Minister of Australia William McMahon since March 1971 with coalition partner the Country Party...

, when he lost his own seat by 35 votes. He won Lilley back at the 1974 election

Australian federal election, 1974

Federal elections were held in Australia on 18 May 1974. All 127 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 60 seats in the Senate were up for election, due to a double dissolution...

, but was again defeated at the 1980 election

Australian federal election, 1980

Federal elections were held in Australia on 18 October 1980. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives, and 34 of the 64 seats in the Senate, were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Malcolm Fraser with coalition partner the National Country Party led by Doug...

.

Cairns worked as an economic consultant for the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation and Mount Isa Mines

Mount Isa Mines

The Mount Isa copper, lead, zinc and silver mines near Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia are part of the Xstrata mining company.-History:In 1923 the orebody containing lead, zinc and silver was discovered by the miner John Campbell Miles. The company Mount Isa Mines was founded 1924 but full scale...

. He was a member of the Independent Air Fares Committee under the Fraser

Malcolm Fraser

John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...

 and the Hawke

Bob Hawke

Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....

 governments, when the federal government regulated airfares on interstate routes. He eventually became President of the Queensland Economic Society. He was survived by his wife, Tonia and their four sons and three daughters.

Cairns was the uncle of Clare Martin

Clare Martin

Clare Majella Martin is a former Australian politician. She is the current CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service . A former journalist, she was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in a shock by-election win in 1995...

, a Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 politician who was Chief Minister of the Northern Territory

Chief Minister of the Northern Territory

The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory is appointed by the Administrator, who in normal circumstances will appoint the head of whatever party holds the majority of seats in the legislature of the territory...

from 2001 to 2007.