Just a quarter of the 49 arts sector recipients named in 2016’s honours list are women and all but two are white.

Of the 49 recipients of Australia Day honours, recognised for their contributions to the arts, just 13 (26.5%) are women and just two people, Aboriginal photographer and filmmaker Tracey Moffatt and Arab-Australian oudist Joseph Tawadros, were of a different race to white. The list of 2016 honourees, announced yesterday, could be seen as emblematic of a lack of diversity within Australia’s arts sector, raising questions about gender and racial equality within the arts. However, it is also indicative of the biassed process by which the Australia Day Honours are administered.

Across the full list of 829 Australia Day honourees, 30.3% of recipients were women – 4% more than the percentage of women listed among those recognised for their work in the arts industry. This gender and race disparity is mirrored in the Council for the Order of Australia, which selects the recipients of the prestigious awards: the exclusively white panel has just three women in contrast to 14 men.

The process of selecting recipients for the annual awards, which recognises people across...