‘Cut the crap’: Australian officials flounder under scrutiny about excess deaths

Australian Health Department officials last week floundered under questioning about the alarming number of excess deaths in the country.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), there were 30,000 all-cause excess deaths in 2022, a 15% increase over baseline and the highest death rate in Australia since World War II, according to estimates.

But the Health Department has so far been unable to adequately explain the rising mortality, offering such explanations as a “delay” in deaths and “undiagnosed COVID-19 deaths”.

Queensland Senator Malcolm Roberts pressed health officials during a Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee last week about the department’s response to the excess deaths. Roberts became visibly irritated with the Health Department’s Health Economics and Research Division First Assistant Secretary Dr. Phillip Gould, prompting an admonishment for his language.

“The ABS told me just last night that provisional data is likely 15% underestimated,” said Roberts. “Only half of the excess is attributed to COVID by you guys. All I got was a runaround and an admission that yes, there is evidence of excess deaths. [Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly] is telling me it is a concern and you’re looking into it. But at the same time, Mr. Gould is saying all of the data is incomplete so we shouldn’t be worried. 

“Now can you please cut the crap and waffle and tell me exactly what has caused the excess death, the startling excess death?”

That earned Roberts a rebuke from Committee Chairwoman Marielle Smith, who told him to use more “parliamentary” language.

Roberts also added that the number of excess deaths are equivalent to “two Boeing 787 airlines crashing every week for a year”.

Gould responded by acknowledging that there is “no debate” about the alarming increase in excess deaths which is “significantly more than normal”.

“At this point it’s hard to give you a definitive answer, but we have what we believe are a combination of likely causes for that,” said Gould.

At a go-ahead from Roberts, Gould stammeringly offered the first of his tentative explanations.

It is possible, he said, that the excess deaths are actually a normal occurrence because they follow a period of low excess death, which he said last happened in 2020. Gould called it “compensation”.

The health official then tried to claim the excess deaths were due to an aging population.

“Don’t we have aging people every year?” asked Roberts.

“We have a population with an increasing median age group every year,” responded Gould.

“This is sudden?”

“No, this is not sudden, this is a pattern that we’ve seen evolving over time.”

Further explanations offered by Gould invoked COVID-19, whose “long-term” impact may be causing excess deaths; a delay in emergency response times; and “pandemic-influenced lifestyle changes”.

“The basic health that you ignored during the three years of the COVID virus. That you suppressed,” Roberts cut in.

At a puzzled look from Gould, the senator explained: “Fitness, exercise, breathing, sunshine, fresh air.”

During the pandemic, an easing of restrictions in Australia meant that two individuals could meet outdoors for four hours — up from two — within 10 kilometers of their homes. This was in addition to the time allotted for exercise.  

Roberts then launched into what he thought is a possible explanation:

“Qualified experts, not compromised by attachment to policy, are screaming, ‘It’s the vaccine, the COVID injections’. Peer-reviewed papers are saying it’s the injections and many independent, uncensored doctors are saying the same thing.

“There’s been a significant increase in deaths from causes known to be serious side effects, adverse event effects of the injections. 

“There’s a temporal relationship that even Professor Kelly admits, and then we’ve got the [Therapeutic Goods Administration] . . . admitting it did not access the patient-level data.

“You don’t know and you don’t seem to care,” accused Roberts, repeating that if two plane loads of passengers were crashing every week there wouldn’t be such ignorance. 

Gould responded that the government has published a pre-printed paper showing there is no correlation between the excess deaths and the COVID-19 shots.

The Health Department’s justifications for excess deaths closely match those offered by United Kingdom “health experts”, who are also struggling to explain 30,000 excess deaths last year.