Annabelle Rankin

The Honourable Dame Annabelle Rankin DBE
High Commissioner of Australia to New Zealand
In office 18 March 1971 – 12 June 1974
Prime Minister	William McMahon Gough Whitlam
Preceded by	Ted Hicks
Succeeded by	Brian Clarence Hill
Minister for Housing
In office 26 January 1966 – 22 March 1971
Prime Minister	Harold Holt John McEwen John Gorton William McMahon
Preceded by	Les Bury
Succeeded by	Kevin Cairns
Government Whip in the Senate
In office 11 June 1951 – 8 March 1966
Prime Minister	Robert Menzies
Preceded by	Reg Wright
Succeeded by	Malcolm Scott
Senator for Queensland
In office 1 July 1947 – 24 May 1971
Succeeded by	Neville Bonner
Personal details
Born	Annabelle Jane Mary Rankin (1908-07-28)28 July 1908 South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Died	30 August 1986(1986-08-30) (aged 78) South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Political party	Liberal
Relations	Colin Rankin (father)

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 departmental 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.