2022 UNE Distinguished Alumni Award winner - Ms Inaam Tabbaa AM FRSN
In recognition of her significant contribution to educating and inspiring young people and for her services to the community.
Working for the Master Builders’ Association (MBA) in the 1970s was not a job for the faint-hearted. Nor, many would have said, a woman, let alone a Muslim woman. But for 2022 UNE Distinguished Alumni Award winner, trail-blazing industrial relations law graduate Inaam Tabbaa, it was a pivotal step in rising to lofty judicial ranks in her adopted country.
“When the MBA received a claim for the installation of air-conditioners in the cabins of tower cranes, I, as department head, took one of our industrial officers and climbed up into the cabins of five tower cranes, including the one at Centrepoint Tower, in order to investigate whether the claim was justified,” Inaam remembers. “It’s the highest point in Sydney, and the men tried to scare me by bringing me down in a box on Pitt Street. I called their bluff and went down.
“My family certainly didn’t know the kind of language I was hearing on building sites, but I found that I was a natural and the men accepted me. I didn’t try to be one of the boys – I don’t put on airs – even in meetings with delegates in building sheds, where people would be shivering in their boots during serious negotiations. I made some very good friends during that time, that I still have.”
For a long period Inaam was the only woman industrial officer in the building industry nationally, having worked her way up from a temporary administration role she secured within three days of arriving in Australia from Nigeria. “I was offered the job full-time on my first day, then became an industrial relations assistant, then an industrial officer and finally headed a department of 16 industrial and safety officers as the executive officer – industrial relations and safety,” she said. But, always, there was a desire to know more.
I watched and I learned, step by step
“I watched and I learned, step by step,” Inaam says. “I’ve always been very curious. The first word in the Quran, is Iqra, which means ‘to read’. Whatever you study never goes to waste, but many people in my community couldn’t believe I was doing these jobs.”
Studies to become accredited as a work, health and safety trainer soon parlayed into a TAFE Certificate in Industrial Relations, then a Diploma in Labour Relations and a Bachelor of Business. Although Inaam “hated every second” of her first undergraduate degree she felt compelled to complete it – “If I start something, I must finish it” – before finding a more natural fit with law at UNE.
Throughout both demanding degrees, Inaam worked full-time throughout her part-time studies. She was still studying at UNE when, in early 1991, she was appointed to the role of Commissioner with the Industrial Relations Commission of NSW and became the only woman member of that tribunal at that time. Until her retirement, in 2016, she remained its first and only woman Muslim member.
The cases Inaam heard at the commission were as complex as they were important – from the sacking of a local council and dismissal of a school principal, to accusations of rail staff making racist comments to travellers. “It was quite demanding and my principle has always been that people come to you for help and need to get that help, so I go in boots and all and do everything in my power to help,” Inaam says.
Finding a negotiated solution was what she found most rewarding.
“I had a preference for conciliated settlements and had a high rate of them,” Inaam says. “I was not always successful, but I tried to find the humanity in every argument. Some of the stories were heartbreaking.
“In industrial relations law you meet diverse people. Some are out for money, some are ambulance chasers using peoples’ emotions, and that drove me crazy. But, by the same token, I also met a lot of good people.
“I’m proud that the first appeal against any of my decisions was made nearly 10 years into my appointment and that there were very few appeals against my decisions all told. I always tried to be fair to both sides.”
Ceremonial Sitting to mark the 120th anniversary of the Industrial Relations Commission.
L to R: Former Acting Chief Commissioner Inaam Tabbaa AM FRSN, The Hon. Justice Roger Boland (Previous President, now retired), The Hon. Justice Michael Walton (Previous President, now Judge of the Supreme Court), Chief Commissioner Nichola Constant (current head of the Tribunal), The Hon. Justice Lance Wright KC (Previous President, now retired), Former Chief Commissioner Peter Kite SC, Elizabeth Robinson (Industrial Registrar).
After completing her College of Law in 2007, Inaam was admitted to the Supreme Court of NSW and served as an acting magistrate with the Local Courts of NSW for a short time. Again, she became the first Muslim member of that court.
Returning to the Industrial Relations Commission, Inaam worked first as a member (2010-14) and then chair (2014-17) of the IRC’s Education Committee, where she was able to take an active interest in the impact of the justice system on First Nations peoples. In late 2016 she was appointed to the position of Acting Chief Commissioner, becoming the first woman and first Muslim to head that tribunal in its 116-year history.
Inaam’s service to industrial relations in NSW and to the community through the Australian Council of Women’s Affairs (ACWA) was recognised with an AM in 2012. It acknowledged the part she played in successfully securing accommodation for migrant students, disadvantaged women and those with a disability, as well as her support for three community language schools through the ACWA.
Life for Inaam has been no less busy in “retirement”, especially as a full-time volunteer with the Australian National Sports Club in Canterbury-Bankstown, a not-for-profit facility catering to socially and financially disadvantaged people of all ages from at least 26 different ethnic and diverse religious backgrounds. Inaam’s grant and policy-writing skills and fundraising efforts are legendary, and her latest project is to create a sensory gym for children with an intellectual disability. Again, she blazed a trail as the first woman president for two consecutive terms in the club’s 47-year history.
Add to this the development of radio programs for Muslim children, occasional foster care, a previous regular radio spot on QK Radio and membership of the No Excuse for Abuse committee of the Campsie Police Area Command and the full extent of Inaam’s advocacy becomes apparent.
When I speak to young Muslim women, I tell them there is nothing in Australia that can stop them from achieving whatever they put their mind to
“When I speak to young Muslim women, I tell them there is nothing in Australia that can stop them from achieving whatever they put their mind to,” she says. “Doors are open and they can do all sorts of things, unlike early in my career, when people questioned how I could possibly go up on a crane.”
Rising to those dizzy heights would never have been possible without a determination that everyone deserves a fair go. “In court, as in life, that is very important to me,” Inaam says. “In all my time on building sites I never experienced a problem as a Muslim woman. In Australia, I felt that I landed on my feet and found true inclusivity. And there is still so much I want to do and learn.”
