Dissenting Report from Senator Babet of the United Australia Party

Too many dead, too little inquiry, too much suppression

1.1The Excess Mortality Inquiry conducted by the Senate Community Affairs References Committee was established with the purpose of understanding the factors contributing to excess mortality in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and making recommendations on how to address any identified preventable drivers of excess mortality.

1.2The inquiry terms of reference were designed in a way that would empower an inquiry whereby the plethora of potential causes of higher-than-expected all-cause mortality would be investigated. The terms of reference deliberately do not draw any conclusions and invite submissions from diverse perspectives.

1.3For this inquiry to achieve its intended goal, there needed to be an open discourse free from any censorship or bias. This inquiry was intended to allow input from the public, independent analysts and organisations. The purpose of an inquiry is not to regurgitate government agency responses, but to allow views from disparate sources to be heard.

Too much suppression

1.4Disappointingly the committee process has resulted in an inquiry that has suppressed the vast majority of views. Just 50 (26.74%) of the submissions received by the committee have been uploaded to the inquiry website for public viewing. A further 137 submissions have not seen the light of day.

1.5Of the 137 submissions that have not been uploaded for public viewing, 57 were confidential submissions, 14 were name withheld submissions and a further 66 were determined by the committee to be accepted as ‘unpublished correspondence’.

1.6It is common practice for Senate Committees to publish on their website the majority of submissions received for any inquiry. It is wholly unsatisfactory that 66 excess mortality submissions whose authors agreed to public release would be determined by the committee to be ‘accepted as unpublished correspondence only’. These submissions have been buried, never to see the light of day. The 14 submissions treated as name withheld should also have been uploaded, without the names of the authors.

1.7The submissions that the committee chose to suppress by taking as ‘unpublished correspondence’ include those from professors, doctors, medical specialists, academics, actuarial and subject matter experts, as well as concerned Australian citizens.

1.8The comprehensive submission provided by Australian Medical Professionals Society (AMPS) has been censored. The original version was not accepted because the committee advised that it comprised of numerous attachments/articles and did not directly address the terms of reference. The AMPS submission was undertaken by a multidisciplinary team of medical, scientific, and academic subject matter experts and required hundreds of hours of research, review, and analysis.

1.9AMPS have been at the forefront of investigating excess mortality in Australia. Amongst many initiatives, in 2023 they published a book titled ‘Too many dead, an inquiry into Australia’s excess mortality’. After much negotiation, and what appeared to be a committee determined not to publish their work, a very brief summary of AMPS’ research has eventually been published as submission 49. This summary does not adequately reflect the magnitude and significance of their findings. AMPS decided to post their full original submission on their website. This submission includes:

Evidence of an uptick in all-cause mortality (ACM) with the introduction of Covid vaccines to a zero Covid community,

An estimate of the true contribution of Covid to excess deaths (29% at most),

An estimate of the true number of Australian cumulative excess deaths throughout 2021-2023 in the ballpark of 40,000 as opposed to the official Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimate of 29,601,

Discussion of how the ABS drastically reduced its excess deaths estimate overnight by changing its baseline modelling,

Evidence that Covid vaccine injuries and deaths are under-reported in official record keeping,

A review of the Australian Government’s unscientific response to the Covid pandemic and its detrimental impact on health outcomes, likely contributing to excess deaths,

Evidence that deaths in the vaccine arm of the Pfizer trial were concealed prior to the US Emergency Use Approval (EUA) data cut-off date, plus evidence of a 3.7-fold increase in cardiac events in vaccinated vs. placebo arm subjects.

The full AMPS submission would have been useful to inform both the committee and the public.

Delays and roadblocks plague the inquiry.

1.10The Senate voted in favour of this inquiry on 26th March 2024, but the inquiry took some time to appear live on the committee website. The committee advised of a glitch, and the inquiry page went live on 2nd April.

1.11The initial timeframe provided for submissions was far too brief, allowing just one month, including the Easter period.The committee thankfully agreed to extend the closing date for submissions to the 17th of May (as per Senator Babet’s request).

1.12A one-day public hearing was proposed for the 13th of June 2024 and a draft program was circulated on May 22nd. Senator Babet requested a second day for the public hearing, which was denied. He also supplied the names of 6 organisations and 36 individuals as recommended witnesses, almost all these recommended witnesses were denied the opportunity to present their views and evidence.

1.13The proposed public hearing program disappointingly consisted largely of government or government funded organisations, providing very little opportunity for independent organisations or individual voices be heard.

1.14The final program for the public hearings included two witnesses requested by Senator Babet (AMPS and COVERSE). Unfortunately, both the Actuaries Institute and RACGP were late cancellations and unable to attend due to other commitments.

1.15Many submissions were not uploaded prior to the day of the public hearing, meaning that the Senators were unable to refer to the very important content of those submissions in their questioning.

1.16One of the many failures of this process has been the lack of transparency around 137 submissions not uploaded for public viewing, of which there are 80 whose authors intended for their views to be made public.

1.17Many whose contributions have been buried have contacted our office in dismay, their experience has led to a real distrust in the committee process. It is disappointing that this inquiry has lacked true transparency and silenced many qualified voices.

Covid-19 Vaccination as a potential cause of excess deaths

1.1897.7% of Australians over 16 received a COVID-19 vaccination. Given this was a new biological therapeutic, never previously used in humans, it is entirely reasonable to ask the question whether it caused or contributed to the excess death toll.[1]

1.19We know the COVID-19 vaccines are novel and were fast tracked. Minister Greg Hunt stated on 21st February 2021 that “The world is engaged in the largest clinical trial, the largest global vaccination trial ever”.[2]

1.20The Department of Health and Aged Care stated that “There is no credible evidence to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines have contributed to excess deaths in Australia or overseas”. They quoted a paper titled “Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination against COVID-19 specific and all-cause mortality in older Australians: a population-based study” which was published in The Lancet and claimed that vaccines protected against COVID-19 death and found no evidence that they contributed to higher all-cause mortality.[3]Senator Babet raised criticisms of this study and supplied a 4-page letter by Dr Wilson Sy and Dr Christopher Neil as evidence. The doctors stated in the letter that “the paper has serious deficiencies in data integrity, data selection bias, flawed methods of analysis, undisclosed adjustments of results, selective reporting of findings and the drawing of invalid conclusions. The Australian Government has chosen to take this paper as authoritative evidence to justify its health policy, which has been associated with many excess deaths particularly in older Australians, but those deaths have been brushed off without investigation as coincidental, unrelated to vaccination. The paper, in its currently published form, has serious methodological and analytical defects, resulting in errors and misleading conclusions. Therefore, the paper needs substantial revision to address the issues raised, or else it should be retracted.”[4]

1.21The committee heard evidence that, while there are 16 deaths confirmed by the Department as a result of vaccine injury, this represents a relatively small proportion of the 69, 788, 192 vaccine doses administered between the years 2021 and 2023, and a small proportion of the excess deaths in Australia.[5]

1.22It is hard to comprehend there being just 16 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 vaccines when you consider the significant reporting of deaths and injuries following vaccination in the DAENS database.As COVERSE states[6], “Furthermore, these 1,000+ reports (of death) must surely represent only a fraction of the true number, given the reluctance of many in the medical and public health sectors to make reports to the TGA, let alone acknowledge that there may be a connection with the COVID-19 vaccinations.” There have also been reports of more than 139,000 adverse events following vaccination for COVID-19.

1.23Kara Potter from COVERSE shared with the committee[7] her personal vaccine injury, she stated “I received my vaccine injury from my third Pfizer shot, which was my booster shot, on 8 January 2022. It started with pericarditis, but the inflammation was much further spread than just in my heart. It went through to my lungs and further to other parts of my body, including my brain over a period of about five months. I was quite acutely unwell. I made multiple trips to hospital. I spent about six weeks overall in hospital trying to recover from just that initial acute injury. Since then, I am now chronically ill and disabled from the vaccine. I am no longer able to work or drive or do many things at all. It affects my whole body, my capacity to think and speak, and my ability to walk. My regulatory system is completely disorganised. It has had a major catastrophic impact on myself and my family.“ Ms Potter also stated: “I have had varied levels of support. I was very fortunate. Unlike many people, my GP recognised my injury to begin with. I am actually grateful to my GP that I am alive, because she recognised I had a vaccine injury.”

1.24The Western Australian Vaccine Safety Surveillance annual report for 2021 clearly shows the heightened risk of adverse events from COVID-19 vaccines. For 2021 the adverse event rate for all non-COVID vaccines was 11.1 per 100,000 doses. For COVID-19 vaccines the adverse event rate was 264.1 per 100,000 doses. The risk of adverse event per dose in Western Australia was 23.79 times greater for COVID-19 vaccines than all other vaccines.[8]

1.25AMPS states that COVID-19 vaccines may be contributing to ill health and excess deaths in the population, necessitating additional research.[9]

1.26Dr Rado Faletic from COVERSE stated in the public hearing: “We know, for example, that when the Australian government's Vaccine Claims Scheme was launched there were 10,000 people who signed up to receive information. That's 10,000 Australians who had an adverse reaction serious enough to think they needed compensation. From our perspective and from all of the other bits of information that we've collected, we think that's a lower bound. The true number of people in this country could be 10 times as many as that.”[10]

1.27The prevention of transmission is not an approved indication for these products[11] (COVID-19 Vaccines). Yet, many Australians were mandated into taking these novel products and ended up suffering from life changing adverse events. Despite overwhelming evidence suggesting physical and psychological harm from the government response, mandates persist to this day.[12]

1.28The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) confirmed that vaccination status is not reported with death registrations and therefore the ABS does not track deaths by vaccination status.[13]

1.29A question on notice response by the ABS stated that “vaccination status is not recorded on the death certificate unless the vaccine led to a complication which caused, or significantly contributed to, death”.[14]

1.30In March of 2020 the ABS provided guidance for certifying deaths due to COVID-19. The advice stated: “due to the public health importance of COVID-19, the WHO have directed that the new coronavirus strain be recorded as the underlying cause of death, i.e., the disease or condition that initiated the train of morbid events, when it is recorded as having caused or contributed to death.[15]

1.31The Australia Bureau of Statistics stated that: “vaccination status is not recorded on the death certificate unless the vaccine led to a complication which caused, or significantly contributed to death”.[16]

1.32According to Dr Chris Neil, “literature now reveals the pathogenicity of the spike protein used in these vaccines, with concerns ranging from cytotoxicity to cardiotoxicity, from thrombogenicity to oncogenicity—and I could go on. Three consecutive years into this trend, we put it to you that excess mortality has tragically become the most important signal in pharmacovigilance. Unexplained excess mortality continues globally and cannot now be hidden, receiving attention in peer reviewed articles, in mainstream press and in public awareness. AMPS strongly believes that the inquiry the people of Australia deserve must be full and exacting.”[17]

1.33Dr Jeyanthi Kunadhasan stated “as an author in the first peer reviewed data that actually looked at the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine data, one thing I want to emphasise is that at no point during the (Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine) trial was the intervention lifesaving. We aligned the deaths as they occurred along the timeline and at no point in this trial was this intervention lifesaving.”[18]

1.34Coercive vaccination, Dr Monique O’Connor contends, “caused extreme intentional suffering, torture, which is contributing to poor mental health and overall community wellbeing. The mental health needs of those who were tortured are largely unrecognized and unmet. The fact that mainstream mental health and medical care were complicit with vaccine mandates make outreach to those suffering all the more difficult because of mistrust and access to health care barriers.”[19]

1.35Sudden presumed cardiac arrests in paediatric populations increased from 29% in the 2021/22 Ambulance Victoria annual report to over 40% in 2022/23 annual report.[20]

1.36All the above is evidence that COVID-19 vaccines may have caused more death and injury than is admitted or considered by the Australian government and in the interests of the truth further investigation must be launched.

Data reliability and availability hampering quality and timeliness of analysis

1.37It needs to be recognised in times of unprecedented disruption, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, that the government agencies that assume responsibility may not have the depth and breadth of expertise required to best serve the Australian people. The voices of those with a wide range of expertise need to be heard, without fear of dismissal, retribution or disparagement.

1.38Assoc Professor Tim Adair et al. noted that “more timely mortality data be available to researchers and the general public. The ABS should report monthly mortality data by age, sex and cause of death, which can enable additional analyses, such as those presented in this submission on a more regular basis, and which can inform policy on a timely basis. They should also consider having those data freely available to users (instead of requiring them to be purchased), which will enable engagement with a range of experts to facilitate a quicker and more in-depth understanding of the impacts of epidemics going forward. It can also build capacity by allowing researchers to train the next generations of demographers on monitoring Australian mortality changes.”.[21]

1.39Ill-defined deaths were also identified as leading to the evidence on mortality during the pandemic being compromised.[22][23]

Limited investigation of vaccine-related deaths

1.40The submission by the Actuaries Institute (number 3) stated:

“The available evidence does not support a significant contribution to excess mortality by the adverse side-effects of COVID-19 vaccines. Indeed, the reverse is true: while every such death is regrettable, it seems clear that the small number of deaths triggered by COVID-19 vaccines is a tiny fraction of the number of COVID-19 deaths that they have prevented.”

The assertion above refers to a study based on NSW data which declares that any vaccine dose required 2 weeks to provide protective immunity, which they implemented by shifting vaccination coverage (1st dose, 2nd and 3rd dose) two weeks later. Thus, if a person dies in that period, it would be considered an unvaccinated death.Submission 42 stated that “this arbitrary element in the definition of ‘vaccination status’ compromises data integrity from the start and distorts the interpretation of COVID data”.[24]

1.41There are other similar concerns about the methodology used in the paper quoted by the Actuaries Institute[25]. The Actuaries Institute extrapolated its findings to a national number of estimated deaths, without taking into account the variations in COVID-19 transmission in different parts of Australia – for example, Queensland and WA had minimal COVID-19, as referred to in the submission by Senator Rennick.[26]

1.42Children’s Health Defence also presents evidence which suggests that the COVID-19 vaccines were “relatively ineffective in preventing death from COVID-19”.[27]

Mental Health and Excess Mortality

1.43Dr Monique O’Connor who is a medical practitioner, Consultant Psychiatrist with over 30 years medical experience draws attention to “the extra burden of difficult grief for those bereaved during the pandemic, and the need to reach out to help them”. She says that “the mental health of Australians was also harmed by pandemic measures. Death by suicide contributed a small proportion of overall deaths, but the impact of suicide and it’s being a marker of poor mental health in the community highlights the immense importance of care for those who are suffering”.

1.44The National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in October 2023, covering 2020-2022, indicated 21.5% of Australians met the diagnostic criteria for having a mental disorder within 12-months of completing the survey; and was as high as 38.8% of 16–24 year-olds.[28]

1.45Measures of severe psychological distress were significantly higher during the pandemic. Rates of severe psychological distress (i.e. those with ‘probable serious mental illness’) peaked between August and October 2021 when an increase from 10.1% to 12.5% was observed. A change of 1% point represents approximately 200,000 people.[29]

1.46“The greatest impact of the pandemic on mental health appears to have been for women, young Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, those who live in Victoria, and those who live in low-income households.”[30]

1.47“Many factors associated with the pandemic response exacerbated known psychosocial risk factors for suicide, including social isolation, job loss, business and career loss, unemployment, financial difficulty, problems accessing health and mental health services, and uncertainty. Public health pandemic measures (enforced by regulatory authorities, the police and military with threats of criminal sanctions, civil penalties, draconian fines and reputational harm) were traumatising for many Australians. They were contributory to increased exposure to recognised psychosocial stressors causal in the deterioration in mental health of Australians.”[31]

1.48Australians for Science and Freedom stated: “In addition to crowding out healthcare, lockdowns kept people away from normal familial and broader social activities, which we know to be protective against various forms of mental disease.”[32]

All our eggs in the ‘vaccine’ basket

1.49According to Australians for Science and Freedom “a significant fraction of excess deaths in Australia since mid-2021 have been classified as covid deaths, (a) it is not clear that these deaths were truly “of” covid rather than merely “with” covid, and (b) it is likely that many of them would have been avoidable with life-preserving care. Prophylaxis and early treatment of covid using known and re-purposed drugs have been known for years to be extremely effective for many years in preventing mortality, even for elderly and ill people, despite being heavily censored in mainstream healthcare and under-utilised by Australia’s health practitioners in favour of other, more extreme treatment protocols. These protocols may have directly caused more deaths with covid than would have otherwise occurred”.[33]

1.50Dr Monique O’Connor, referring to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, said: “The harm caused by social isolation appears not to have been captured other that for the specific home or hotel quarantine. There is reference to ‘Prophylactic measures, unspecified’. There is no clarity on how many suicides occurred following mandated job loss.”[34]

1.51AMPS questions “the effectiveness of a vaccine-centric approach and explores the potential benefits of alternative treatments, such as early treatment with drugs like Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, and supplementation with Vitamin D, Vitamin C, and Zinc. Real-world data from countries using Ivermectin and Vitamin D supplementation have shown promising results in reducing COVID mortality”.[35]

Recommendations

1.52The federal government must establish a royal commission to examine the Australian response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequential impacts on the Australian community. States and Territories should pass complementary legislation that would enable them to participate in the Royal Commission. The terms of reference for the Royal Commission should be adopted from the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs’ COVID-19 Royal Commission inquiry report.[36]

1.53Committees must be made to justify in detail the reasons why each individual submission is not uploaded publicly. All efforts must be made to publish submissions publicly, even if some redaction is necessary.

1.54Integrated data assets held by the AIHW and ABS which include both mortality data and the Australian Immunisation Register data should have been reviewed throughout the pandemic to review any possible connection between higher-than-expected all-cause mortality and COVID-19 vaccination. These same data assets must be made available for independent analysis of vaccination status and mortality.

1.55When dealing with a provisionally approved drug, deaths in interim mortality reporting should be analysed by vaccination status by integrating the AIR data, not just relying on death certificates.

1.56During a declared pandemic, mortality data should be available to researchers and the general public. The ABS should report monthly mortality data by age, sex and cause of death, which would enable additional analyses on a more regular basis, which can inform policy. Data should be freely available to users, enabling engagement with a range of experts to facilitate a quicker and more in-depth understanding of the impacts of epidemics going forward.

1.57Extend the COVID-19 Vaccine Claims Scheme and fully review its terms to ensure that victims are adequately compensated.

1.58The federal government must pass legislation which prohibits vaccine mandates.

1.59In the interest of transparency, existing contracts containing indemnification clauses should be release publicly as they create an unquantifiable contingent liability for Australian taxpayers.

1.60According to official data, deaths of young women continue to run at far higher than expected levels, whereas young men do not. The cause/s of this alarming and consistent trend must be immediately identified.[37]

1.61An appropriate independent body should undertake comprehensive review (including with bereaved families) of every report of death following COVID-19 vaccination. This body should also undertake investigations of each serious adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) report to pharmacovigilance authorities including interviewing each patient and undertaking additional specialised testing where possible. All AEFI reports (including those not deemed “serious”) should be individually followed-up to determine the long-lasting consequences of their vaccine reactions (which may include death).[38]

1.62A review of the coding of COVID-19 deaths needs to be done, identifying the true impact of COVID-19 on the community, rather than potentially including “with COVID” deaths with deaths directly caused by COVID-19.

Senator Ralph Babet

United Australia Party

Senator for Victoria

Footnotes

[1]Submission 18, Dr Monique O’Connor, Page 3

[2]Submission 31, United Australia Party, Page 23

[3]Submission 1, The Department of Health and Aged Care, Page 8.

[4]Answers to questions on notice #1, https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/ExcessMortality47/Additional_Documents?docType=Answer%20to%20Question%20on%20Notice

[5]Department of Health and Aged Care, answer to written question on notice, 13 June 2024 (received 26 June 2024); Dr Philip Gould, First Assistant Secretary and Chief Data Officer, Health, Economics and Research Division, Department of Health and Aged Care, CommitteeHansard, 13 June 2024.

[6]Submission 13, COVERSE, Page 3

[7]Public Hearing Transcript, Page 38

[8]Submission 31, United Australia Party, Page 23

[9]Submission 49, AMPS, Page 4

[10]Public Hearing Transcript, page 35

[11]Answer to QON, IQ24-000060, Department of Health and Aged Care, Page 5

[12]Submission 49, AMPS, Page 2

[13]Submission 2, ABS, Page 14

[14] Answer to QON, IQ24-000003, ABS, Page 8

[15]https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/1205.0.55.001Main+Features12008?OpenDocument

[16] Answer to QON, IQ24-000003, ABS, Page 8

[17] Community Affairs References Committee, Excess Mortality Inquiry, Public Hearing Transcript, Page 34

[18]Community Affairs References Committee, Excess Mortality Inquiry, Public Hearing Transcript, Page 34

[19]Submission 18, Dr Monique O’Connor, Page 59

[20]Submission 18, Dr Monique O’Connor, Page 24

[21]Submission 32, Assoc Prof Tim Adair et al., Page 8

[22]Submission 32, University of Melbourne and Australian National University

[23]Submission 31, United Australia Party, Page 17

[24]Submission 42, Lex Stewart, Page 12

[25]Submission 3, Actuaries Institute, Page 3

[26]Submission 27, Senator Rennick, Page 1

[27]Submission 14, Children’s Health Defence, Page 24

[28]Submission 18, Dr Monique O’Connor, Page 28

[29]Submission 18, Dr Monique O’Connor, Page 28

[30]Submission 18, Dr Monique O’Connor, Page 29

[31]Submission 18, Dr Monique O’Connor, Page 29

[32]Submission 15, Australians for Science and Freedom, Page 6

[33]Submission 15, Australians for Science and Freedom, Page 5

[34]Submission 18, Dr Monique O’Connor, Page 42

[35]Submission 49, AMPS, Page 3

[36]https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/COVID19RC47/Report

[37]https://www.actuaries.digital/2024/04/05/excess-mortality-5-higher-than-pre-pandemic-expectations-for-2023/

[38]Submission 13, COVERSE, Page 4