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.

In 1917 he represented Frank Wilson's government as junior counsel at the royal commission into the Nevanas affair.

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

[4] 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.

[12] His brother, William Ralph Nairn, was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly.