What would happen if a Qantas A380 airbus crashed each week from New Year’s Day until Halloween? If each crash killed all 504 passengers and crew and the last one landed on a train and killed the 710 people inside it as well, that would be 22,886 deaths.

Could the media ignore the crashes, or get away with reporting that air safety was getting worse due to climate change, or doctors were baffled by the inexplicable rise in aviation accidents?

Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics published the latest data on excess deaths.