Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at Parliament House in Canberra Photo: Andrew Meares
When I opened the email, I just started laughing.
It began:
"Dear Jenna Price,
"This may come as a surprise, but I'm writing to let you know that you were nominated for the 2016 Australian of the Year Awards."
I forwarded it to a few members of my family. One sent back a sarcastic emoji. Another asked who was pranking me. Harsh.
January is the time of year when the big awards come out to play, both the Australian of the Year awards and the Australia Day Honours. Every year, I open the paper and go through the lists very intently, looking to see if I can discern contemporary Australia, a reflection of who we truly are.
And every year, I am disappointed. Not because the winners aren't worthy; but because they are not the only ones who are worthy.
So many of these winners have won so much at life already, it hardly seems fair for them to win more. And so many win awards for services in which they work. Services to medicine. Services to the arts. Services for which they are already rewarded handsomely.
Last year, Fairfax reported, based on 2012- 2013 information in tax returns, an average income difference of $155,823 between the richest postcode (2027, Darling Point and environs) and the poorest postcode (Delungra 2403) – both in NSW.
It's not just the money but 600 kilometres which separates these two places. One has water views, the other takes in Myall Creek where 30 Indigenous Australians were murdered in 1838.
So I decided to check out who won Australia Day Honours based on the ABC's useful widget where you can pop in a postcode to reveal the residents who won awards this year.
So in the wealthiest of our suburbs, 2027? Just two: Robin Crawford and Anthony Grey. But by the time you get to number 10 on the list of wealthiest suburbs in Australia, 20 people in those postcodes have received honours in the Australia Day Honours list.
And in the bottom ten suburbs by wealth? Not a single one.
Are the rich worthier? Or just much more likely to be rewarded because of social capital. Pierre Bourdieu, the French sociologist, described it as "the sum of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalised relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition."
In other words, who you know. This is not necessarily a bad thing – but it excludes so many deserving people. The postcode analysis might be a little simplistic – and, yes, of course there are differences in population and opportunity - but it's a small insight into how this works.
Here's what it takes to be on that list, according to It's An Honour, the website dedicated to explaining how the complex process works.
"Honours help define, encourage and reinforce national aspirations, ideals and standards by identifying role models. We give honours to recognise, celebrate and say thank you to those who make a difference, those who achieve their best and those who serve others. Like nearly every other country in the world, Australia has a system of honours and awards so its citizens can be recognised for excellence, achievement or meritorious service."
It cannot be true that the wealthiest are our best role models; that they are most likely to define, encourage and reinforce our national aspirations. It can only be true that those who know them and nominate them have the social and cultural capital to best understand the system.
Which is very bloody complex.
Gabrielle (Gail) Hewison and her sister Libby Silver ran the Feminist Bookshop in Sydney's Lilyfield for years. Somewhere around 2001, supporters of the bookshop and its outreach program to women in refuges decided to nominate the pair but it took years from the first idea to success. Hewison is by no means a wealthy woman but her network was absolutely determined.
"Our nominators had to write submissions, get sponsors to support with letters, answer questions; and in all it took about five years from beginning to end," she said on Tuesday.
"You don't slap in the nomination next week and then get it the next honours . . . so do it but don't give up . . . start now."
Hewison is unusual for another reason too. If you are a woman, you are much less likely to win an Order of Australia than if you are a man. In fact, women win just 30 per cent of the honours – and that rate hasn't changed one percentage point in 20 years.
The truth is, we don't get nominated as much either. Even if every single woman who was nominated for an Order of Australia received one, women would still win only 40 per cent of the honours.
Why is that?
In Inga Ting's fascinating deconstruction of this year's Australia Day Honours List, she reports women are more likely than ever to succeed once they are nominated - but the problem is that they are no more likely to be nominated than they were ten years ago.
It's certainly possible to glean something about diversity from the list of honours – but not by going on names (there are just too many people whose families translated their last names the minute they arrived in Australia). But it certainly looks reasonably Anglo.
There were 19 mentions of the word Indigenous attached to nominations. There are ten mentions of the word disability or disabled. Just a handful of mentions of specific religions or ethnic groups but 317 mentions of community (and some of those mentions belong to politicians, who probably should be banned from receiving these awards).
Not that those words actually ensure the recipients are from those groups, just that they work with those groups.
And what of my nomination for Australian of the Year? Turns out it wasn't a hoax but obviously someone kind who'd decided an outspoken feminist needed to be recognised. Fortunately, in the NSW category for Australian of the Year, one such woman, Elizabeth Broderick, won.
As the email said: "Regardless of the outcome of the next stage of the Awards program you should be very pleased and proud that someone felt you deserved special recognition and took the time to nominate and tell us about you."
So many women and men deserve special recognition.
If you know someone, nominate them for an Order of Australia. There's more of a chance – even if you are a woman.
Follow me on Twitter @jennaprice or email jennapricejournalist@gmail.com
