Persistence paid off yesterday for Senator Ralph Babet, of the United Australia Party, as the Senate voted in favour of his motion calling for further inquiry into the causes of Australia’s excess deaths.
This is the fourth time Senator Babet has put forward a motion for inquiry into Australian excess mortality. The Senate previously voted against two similar motions put forward by Senator Babet in March 2023, and a third earlier this month.
While yesterday’s motion calling for agreement that there is “a need for further inquiry” into the causes of Australia’s excess mortality is more symbolic than practical in its outcome, Senator Babet says that its passing is an important step in the right direction.
“This motion is symbolic of a changing sentiment around this issue, and I am not aware of any other parliament in the world who has admitted that excess deaths are worthy of inquiry,” Senator Babet said in a statement released after the vote.
“Now that the Senate has admitted that there is a problem, we must proceed to a robust inquiry that will provide these answers to the Australian people and put to bed any speculation. We cannot allow excess mortality to be normalised.”
Excess deaths began to rise in Australia in 2021, peaking in 2022, and sustaining into 2023. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) excess mortality reporting from the start of the pandemic period up to the first quarter of 2023 shows that excess mortality peaked at 10.9% in 2022, dropping to 9.1% in the first quarter of 2023.
Estimates of Australia’s excess mortality vary depending on the model used, as evidenced by the ABS revising down its 2020-2023 excess deaths figures when it adopted new modelling in 2023. Similarly, the UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) changed its modelling in February of this year, resulting in a reported 20,000 excess deaths vanishing into thin air.
Nevertheless, there is no disputing that Australia saw record-high excess deaths over the past three years, and that they cannot all be attributed to Covid.
The Senate narrowly voted down Senator Babet’s third motion for further inquiry into Australia’s excess mortality just weeks ago, but by yesterday, enough Senators had had a change of heart on the subject to pass Senator Babet’s motion, 31:30.
It is now only Labor and the Greens who oppose inquiring into the causes of Australia’s excess mortality. See the full vote breakdown here.
Following the Senate’s acknowledgment that investigation into the causes of Australia’s excess mortality is warranted, it is expected that a motion will soon be put forward to initiate a formal inquiry.
