Adam Goodes, Australian of the Year in 2014, does not have an Order of Australia.

He played for the Sydney Swans, won the Brownlow medal for best and fairest twice, won two AFL premierships and was an All-Australian on four separate occasions.

A footy genius. A person who promoted our one true national sport with joy. Just that should have been enough to get Goodesy on the list. Seriously, one time, he and the Sydney Swans visited the gym I use and by the time they left, everyone either wanted to be a player or become a member. Sign us up for everything.

His athleticism is not why I think he should be awarded an Order of Australia.

He should be on that list, right at the top, because of service to Australia, because he dared to drag us all into confronting our racism.

He made us look in the mirror and recognise what we saw was not the best we could be. What we saw was a society which tolerated appalling treatment of our First Nations people and other people of colour. As Goodes says in the new documentary The Australian Dream, "Casual racism is there, it's alive and it's flourishing in our communities".

Sometimes it's not even casual. It's what I consider to be the purposeful racism we see around us, for example, the comments made by Liberal MP Jason Wood, our new assistant minister for customs, community safety and multicultural affairs, who used his Facebook page to rail against "African youth gangs" who were "out of control" and demanded the deportation of "foreign-born thugs".

Casual racism, purposeful racism and those who work against racism. That last category of people should be given our highest garlands, lauded, adored.

Goodes stood against racism even when the AFL leadership didn't stand behind him or protect him from appalling treatment. The Indigenous rounds we have in AFL now, they are partly his legacy.

Those who are awarded Orders of Australia should be people who are emblematic of the Australia we want to be, one which values fairness and decency. It should not just be a lapel ornament for doctors and lawyers and accountants; nor should it just be a reward for those who have climbed to the highest spots on the corporate ladder.

In addition to the financial rewards from the work they do, these people also have support structures in place. They are likely to have been nominated by someone else in their organisation, from their fraternity. When I called the Sydney Swans to find out if someone had - ever - nominated Adam Goodes, the response I got was blank. More or less, we don't do that here. Which is sweet but somewhat naive. Also, the Sydney Swans had no trouble in nominating Goodes for an Australian Sports Medal back in 2000.

The people who run the Order of Australia, the people behind the scenes, do their best to get the message out.

Firstly, that we need to nominate people; and secondly, that we must think outside the usual group of people we'd nominate. There is one more tool which should used to propel diversity - and that's a thorough analysis of who gets what.

We know that about one-third of those who get awards are women. We also know that the advocacy of Honour A Woman has led to a greater number of women being nominated. But there must be greater analysis beyond gender and postcode to include race and ethnicity to ensure these honours reflect our society.

As Carol Kiernan of Honour A Woman points out: "We don't have a proper scrutiny of who gets the awards but we know they don't reflect the diversity of our community. The nomination forms just don't ask for enough information."

Yes, there are many excellent people who have not been awarded Orders of Australia. Also, yes, sportspeople do get more of a go. However, Goodes is much more than a sportsman. If he was good enough to be awarded the celebrity status of Australian of the Year, he is more than good enough to be honoured. Which may not mean he wants one. There are good reasons why an Aboriginal person would not want to celebrate on Australia Day or on the Queen's Birthday, bitter reminders of the colonisation of Australia.

But it would be better if Adam Goodes made that decision himself, rather than having it made for him.