Annabelle Rankin, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetAnnabelle Rankin
Australian politician
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
About Annabelle Rankin
- Dame Annabelle Jane Mary Rankin DBE (28 July 1908 – 30 August 1986) was an Australian politician and diplomat.
- She was the first woman from Queensland elected to parliament, the first woman federal government minister, and the first Australian woman to be appointed head of a foreign mission. Rankin was born in Brisbane, the daughter of state MP Colin Rankin.
- A member of the Liberal Party, she was elected to the Senate at the 1946 federal election, taking her seat the following year.
- She was the second woman elected to the Senate, after Dorothy Tangney.
- Rankin was the Liberal Party's chief whip from 1947 to 1950 and from 1951 to 1966; she remains the longest-serving whip in the party's history, in either chamber of parliament.
- In 1966, she was made Minister for Housing in the Holt Government, becoming the first woman to hold a ministerial portfolio.
- She held that position until her retirement from politics in 1971.
- As High Commissioner to New Zealand from 1971 to 1974, she was the first woman to head an Australian mission overseas.
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