Mabel Miller

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dame Mabel Flora Miller, DBE (November 30, 1906 - December 30, 1978) was an Australian lawyer and politician. She was the first woman elected to the Hobart City Council and one of the first two women to be elected to the Tasmanian Legislative Assembly.^{[citation needed]}

Mabel was born in Broken Hill, she received her LLB from the University of Adelaide in 1927 and practiced law in Sydney and London. In 1930 married chemist Alan John Richmond Miller and the settled in Tasmania. They had a daughter.

During World War II, Mabel served in the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF), from 1941 to 1944 she was stationed on airbases around Australia. After the war she was active in the Red Cross and served as president of the National Council of Women of Tasmania from 1952-1954.

She decided to enter local politics when she heard there was mismanagement occurring in the Hobart City Council. She was elected to the Hobart City Council in 1952, she spent 20 years on the council her first sitting ended in 1955 when she was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1955 as the member for Franklin. Amelia Best was also elected in 1955. She remained in Parliament until 1964. After her time in parliament she returned to the Council, serving as deputy mayor from 1964 to 1970, she unsuccessfully stood for mayor in 1970, and resigned in 1972.

In 1967 she was the Australian representative on the United Nations' Status of Women Commission, and an Australian delegate to the General Assembly of the United Nations.

She died on 30 December 1978, New Town, Tasmania, Australia, aged 72 of undisclosed causes.