Background
Cairns was born and educated in Sydney at Street Joseph"s College, Hunters Hill.
Cairns was born and educated in Sydney at Street Joseph"s College, Hunters Hill.
He qualified as a dentist and once in Parliament also gained degrees in arts and economics. He was Minister for Housing in the junior ministry of William McMahon from 22 March 1971 to the defeat of the McMahon government at the 1972 election, when he lost his own seat by 35 votes. Cairns worked as an economic consultant for the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation and Mount Isa Mines.
He eventually became President of the Queensland Economic Society.
Cairns was the uncle of Clare Martin, a Labor Party politician who was Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from 2001 to 2007. However, Kevin himself was part of the Liberal Party.
Cairns died in 1984 and following a state funeral was buried in Nudgee Cemetery.
A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, he made three unsuccessful bids for the Division of Brisbane in Queensland before finally being elected to the Australian House of Representatives for the nearby seat of Lilley. He was a member of the Independent Air Fares Committee under the Fraser and the Hawke governments, when the federal government regulated airfares on interstate routes.