The current MP is Jim Chalmers of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), who has been Treasurer of Australia since 2022.

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission.

[1] The division was created in 1984 and is named after Dame Annabelle Rankin, the first Queensland woman elected to the Senate.

In its original form, Rankin covered the Gold Coast hinterland including Lamington National Park and the major town of Beaudesert as well as some outer metropolitan areas of Brisbane.

In this situation it was a marginal seat held by the Labor party.