Senate knocks back Select Committee on Excess Mortality
23 March 2023
Select committee on Australia’s Excess Mortality
Appointment
Senator BABET (Victoria – United Australia Party Whip) (11:22): I move:
(1) That a select committee, to be known as the Select Committee on Australia’s Excess Mortality, be established to inquire into and report on:
(a) current Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data showing excess deaths in 2021 and 2022, with particular reference to:
(i) all-cause provisional mortality data reported by the states and territories to the ABS, and
(ii) the difference between all-cause provisional mortality data for 2021 and 2022 with the preceding years of 2015 to 2020 (inclusive); and
(b) the socioeconomic determinants on health that might have contributed to these excess deaths, such as mental health, cost of living, or other such factors,
(c) any other identified factors contributing to excess mortality,
(d) the process of death certificate issuance in each state and territory; and (e) any other related matter.
(2) That the committee present its final report by the last day of sitting in March 2024.
(3) That the committee consist of six senators, as follows:
(a) two senators nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate;
(b) two senators nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate;
(c) one senator nominated by the United Australia Party; and
(d) one senator nominated by other minority party or independent senators.
(4) That:
(a) participating members may be appointed to the committee on the nomination of the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate or any minority party or independent senator,
(b) participating members may participate in hearings of evidence and deliberations of the committee, and have all the rights of members of the committee, but may not vote on any questions before the committee; and
(c) a participating member shall be taken to be a member of a committee for the purpose of forming a quorum of the committee if a majority of members of the committee is not present.
(5) That the committee may proceed to the dispatch of business notwithstanding that not all members have been duly nominated and appointed and notwithstanding any vacancy.
(6) That the committee elect as chair the member nominated by the United Australia Party and, as deputy chair, a member nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate.
(7) That the deputy chair shall act as chair when the chair is absent from a meeting of the committee or the position of chair is temporarily vacant.
(8) That the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, may appoint another member of the committee to act as chair during the temporary absence of both the chair and deputy chair at a meeting of the committee.
(9) That, in the event of an equally divided vote, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, have a casting vote.
(10) That the committee have power to appoint subcommittees consisting of three or more of its members, and to refer to any such subcommittee any of the matters which the committee is empowered to consider.
(11) That the committee and any subcommittee have power to send for and examine persons and documents, to move from place to place, to sit in public or in private, notwithstanding any prorogation of the Parliament or dissolution of the House of Representatives, and have leave to report from time to time its proceedings and the evidence taken and such interim recommendations as it may deem fit.
(12) That the committee be provided with all necessary staff, facilities and resources and be empowered to appoint persons with specialist knowledge for the purposes of the committee with the approval of the President.
(13) That the committee be empowered to print from day to day such papers and evidence as may be ordered by it, and a daily Hansard be published of such proceedings as take place in public
Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (11:22): We have witnessed in this country an increased death rate due to COVID vaccines. The evidence is quite clear that the excess death rate is around 17 per cent—unexplained! No-one in the health sector will explain it. No-one in the health bureaucracy will explain it. It is uncaring to let this go. It is a cover-up. There’s been gross mismanagement with COVID. It has never been about health; it has been about using deceit to ensure wealth transfer and control over people. The government has been belted by the crossbench this morning for the lack of transparency and the lack of integrity. Show some guts. Show some integrity. Show some transparency. Support Senator Babet’s motion. One Nation will be supporting Senator Babet’s motion.
Senator DUNIAM (Tasmania—Deputy Manager of Opposition Business) (11:23): The coalition thinks this is a very important issue. Given the number of select committees being operated by the Senate at the moment—I’m being advised that there are five—our preference would be to see this issue interrogated through the Community Affairs References Committee and have an inquiry into these very terms of reference there. As such, we won’t be supporting the motion before the chamber. As stated, it’s an important issue that requires a bit of sunlight, to coin a phrase from Senator McKim. Let’s have a look and interrogate the matter there.
Senator CHISHOLM (Queensland—Assistant Minister for Education, Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Deputy Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (11:24): The government opposes this motion. We oppose it on the basis that there are already mechanisms that exist to undertake the analysis that the motion contemplates. Trusted organisations including the ABS, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Department of Health and Aged Care work together to ensure that we have a robust system of reporting mortality and morbidity at the national level. This work, of course, is informed by the work undertaken by state and territory health departments in their disease surveillance and health reporting frameworks. Our existing framework of disease surveillance and reporting has been built up over decades and continues to provide the data required by public health experts to undertake the detailed epidemiological research into issues such as social determinants of health that is contemplated in this motion.
Question put.
The Senate divided [11:29] —
AYES, 4
Senators—
Antic (Liberal) Babet* (UAP) Hanson (PHON) Roberts (PHON)
NOES, 35
Senators—
Allman-Payne (Grn) Duniam (Lib) McKim (Grn) Steele-John (Grn)
Askew* (Lib) Farrell (ALP) McLachlan (Lib) Sterle (ALP)
Ayres (ALP) Faruqi (Grn) Payman (ALP) Urquhart (ALP)
Brown (ALP) Green (ALP) Pocock, Barbara (Grn) Walsh (ALP)
Cash (Lib) Grogan (ALP) Polley (ALP) Waters (Grn)
Chisholm (ALP) Hanson-Young (Grn) Rice (Grn) Watt (ALP)
Ciccone (ALP) Hume (Lib) Sheldon (ALP) Whish-Wilson (Grn)
Colbeck (Lib) Lines (ALP) Shoebridge (Grn) White (ALP)
Cox (Grn) McAllister (ALP) Smith, Marielle (ALP)
* Tellers
Question negatived.
[Senate extract ends]
Rejection of Senator Babet’s constructive proposal for a Select Committee was blow to all who understand that the thousands of victims of vaccine harm, dead and living, are victims of human sacrifice upon the Altar of Big Pharma Profits.
Although not one of the Nationals Senators was in the Chamber for the vote. Senator Matt Canavan made his view very clear in the afternoon.
Senator Babet was on his feet again, less than five hours later.
MOTIONS
Australian Bureau of Statistics: Mortality Data
Senator BABET (Victoria—United Australia Party Whip) (16:08): I move:
That the Senate acknowledges that:
(a) there has been a concerning number of excess deaths in Australia in 2021 and 2022, as evidenced by recent all-cause provisional mortality data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics; and
(b) there is a need for further inquiry and scrutiny as to the reasons for these excess deaths, including why dementia and diabetes have seen significant increases in recent years.
Earlier today, I moved a motion to create a select committee to examine excess deaths in our country. It was voted down by 35 senators in this place whose names will live on in infamy. Statements were made by both major parties as to why it would not be supported. I’ve got to say the response was as predictable as it was unsatisfactory. Many of us here in this place claim to care about Australians, but by the actions that happened today it doesn’t look like we do. The opposition at least expressed concern over the excess deaths, but they are potentially more interested in covering up the mistakes of the past. As for the government: ‘Well, don’t worry, Australia,’ they said. ‘It’s all being handled already by the institutions we have in place—nothing to see here.’ That was the thinly veiled message.
The fact that Australia is right now experiencing its highest mortality rate in over 80 years must be cause for concern and it must be a priority for everyone in this place. It should be front-page news. According to Actuaries Institute figures released earlier this month, Australia experienced an 11 per cent increase in excess deaths in 2022, the greatest number since World War II. It’s not all COVID. Only around a third of nearly 23,000 excess deaths, according to the most recent ABS report, have been attributed to COVID-19. The remainder, a truly significant amount of excess mortality, is not recorded as COVID related; in fact, it is largely unexplained.
What’s more alarming is that the Actuaries Institute states that excess mortality was a significant percentage in all age groups in 2022. So we’re seeing significant excess mortality across all age groups, even among young people. There is an urgent need to examine what is giving rise to this sudden and extraordinary increase in mortality. Australia is a sick country, and we know there isn’t a simple solution. It is a complex issue. It requires investigation. Whether it’s heart disease, cancer, diabetes or dementia, whether the underlying causes are diet, lifestyle, unexpected consequences of lockdowns or something else, there needs to be an urgent investigation. We must emerge with answers for the Australian people—we must.
When Australian citizens are dying in numbers well beyond expert predictions, at rates not seen in a hundred years, it is appropriate for us to inquire as to the reasons. I don’t know any member of parliament who could just shrug off excess deaths or dismiss the need for more investigation. My call earlier today to establish this committee would, at the very least, have given us a better understanding and would have, hopefully, given us a practical way to address what is now a deeply disturbing trend. Like I said before, that call went unheeded by the majority of those in this place. Only a few caring, dedicated senators decided to stand with me, and I thank them for doing so.
Here is the beginning of Senator Canavan’s significant speech:
Senator CANAVAN (Queensland) (16:51): I’ll start by congratulating Senator Babet for bringing what should be the most important topic in our nation into the Senate for discussion. I thank him for the courage and bravery he has shown on these issues. I also want to pay tribute to the work of Senator Roberts and Senator Rennick, who have gone before me and who know more about this than I do. I especially want to recognise the tireless efforts of Senator Rennick. Sometimes when I’m out and about with Senator Rennick, I see he just gets messages all the time from people right around the country. These are individual cases of people who have been hurt by the vaccines. He’ll break from having a coffee or dinner in order to speak with them and to take up their cause and their issue. He’s a hero to so many people because he is one of the few of us here who is doing the work that a good politician should do: hearing people’s complaints and trying to help them.
These are people who, through no fault of their own, have had their lives destroyed through vaccine injuries. This has become such an emotional debate but, ultimately, a vaccine is a drug and pretty much all drugs have side effects. This drug has been developed in record time and has side effects. But because so much social control and promotion went into it, we can’t even seem to have the humanity and dignity to recognise the tough circumstances that many innocent people have been put into by the rollout of the vaccine. It’s an absolute disgrace that very few of us here are even willing to recognise their issues or that their lives have been turned upside down, let alone take up their cause in a fight like Senator Rennick has. So I pay tribute to him.
The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator Fawcett): The question is that general business notice of motion No. 195, moved by Senator Babet, be agreed to. A division having been called, I remind honourable senators that, when a division is called on Thursdays after 4.30 pm, the matter before the Senate must be adjourned until the next day of sitting, at a time to be fixed by the Senate. The debate is adjourned accordingly.
[End of Hansard extract]
The following day, Friday 24 March 2023, the Senate divided on Senator Babet’s Motion, at 10:14 am. The Liberals, Nationals and One Nation voted in support of Senator Babet’s Motion. Labor and the Greens voted against and the Motion was lost 29 votes to 30. If there was an outcry from the mainstream media, I missed it. I saw no report that the Premier of New South Wales, facing an election the next day, called a press conference at noon on Friday 24 March to express outrage that the Senate had turned its back on the tragedy of excess deaths, described by Senator Canavan as “what should be the most important topic in our nation”. Perhaps the Premier’s advisers convinced him to keep chanting “moving forward, we have a plan” while continuing to pretend that experimental mRNA vaccines are safe and effective and there are no victims of vaccine harm.
Let’s be clear about this. the victims of vaccine harm are legion. If you are a victim, or if you have lost a friend or a relative to a “vaccine”, report vaccine harm at http://www.vaxharm.net
New members are welcome at the Facebook Group: VAXHARM Victims of Vaccines Support Group which already has 2,200 members. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1325528054584631
This article was first published in Stop Human Sacrifice
