After graduation from Sydney University, Babette first worked as a production assistant, then ultimately a producer in theatre and television. In 1983 she became National Marketing Manager for the Hoyts Corporation. Her other corporate appointments included Chief Executive of the New South Wales Bar Association 1993-1997 followed by a twelve month appointment as Director of Language Services for the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission and another twelve month contract as Chief Executive of the mediation organisation LEADR.

In 2001 she established her Sydney practice as a mediator, conciliator and dispute resolution consultant.
Through much of her corporate career, Babette was also a writer.

Her occasional journalism has included two stints as a columnist: 1997-1999 for the Australian Financial Review and 1989-1992 for ITA magazine.

Her most recent book The Luck of the Irish was published by Allen & Unwin in 2014. It followed the controversial and highly successful Australia's Birthstain which had been published in 2008.

Babette's first book, A Cargo of Women: Susannah Watson & the Convicts of the Princess Royal, was a study of 100 female convicts transported to Australia. Short-listed for the 1989 State Literary Awards, it is today frequently used for teaching Australian history and has been widely cited by academics. A revised and illustrated edition was published in October 2008

A highly successful popular novel based on the same historical subject followed. A new edition of A Cargo of Women, the novel was published by Pan Macmillan in 2010

Babette's third book Mothers & Sons was a non-fiction analysis of the relationship between women and their male children, which arose when her long support for feminism combined with concern about the implications for boys. As a result of the book, Babette spoke at the Men & Relationships national conference in Canberra in July 1998. Later that year, she was keynote speaker at an international feminist conference on the topic of mothers and sons in Canada.

Babette stood as an Independent Republican candidate for the Australian Constitutional Convention in 1998. When unelected, she wrote a proposed Preamble to the Constitution which was the subject of debate at the Convention and read into the official record by delegate Jason yat-sen Li.

In 2003 her fourth book Coming Up for Air: the story of the NSW Asthma Foundation, was published.

Today Babette concentrates on her practice as a mediator resolving disputes ranging from workplace, family, health, wills and estate to strata title and franchise matters. She lives in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and fits her writing around work as a mediator. She is also Deputy Chair of the Blackheath History Forum.