Article
Content warning: this post contains reference to murder.
The collective pain of the Australian disability community was compounded in the days following the Mosman Park suspected murder-suicide, because the social media commentary told us that most people think disabled people are burdensome. We felt hated and like our lives were less valuable than non disabled peoples’.
On the morning of 30 January, in Perth’s affluent suburb of Mosman Park, a support worker attended the Clune house, to find a note on the front door that instructed them to not enter, and to call police.
Jarrod Clune, Maiwenna Goasdowe, their sons Leon and Otis Clune, and their three pets were found dead - as a result of a suspected murder suicide. Leon, 16, and Otis, 14, were autistic and are reported to have had “significant health challenges”.
A second note was found inside the house, reportedly detailing that this incident was planned, as well as wishes for their financial arrangements after their deaths. It has also been reported that the family struggled with accessing disability supports, including the NDIS.
The Western Australian police said that no weapon was used and there didn’t appear to be any violent struggles. They also said there were no prior reports of family violence
But the nature of planning to kill children is a violent act. And let’s call this what it is - family violence and filicide.
The public’s response to the Mosman Park suspected murder-suicide was shocking. Thousands of people empathised with the Clune boys’ parents, excusing their murders in public comments on news outlets’ and disability advocates’ social media posts. Parent bloggers wrote long posts about how hard it is to parent disabled children.
Comments like: “don’t judge parents of disabled kids”, “take a walk in their shoes”, or “I understand”, “I don’t condone murder, but…”, “parents [were] doing their absolute best. They saw no other options”, “I have a child with high complexed needs and I can tell you what that mother did came from a place of love not hate…that mother loved her kids”,, “I feel for any family coping with disability….Cannot be easy to live with day in and day out”, “it was an act of love”, “what a hard and courageous decision.” And so on. Many of the commenters declared they are paid or unpaid carers of disabled children and adults.
There’s no denying that parenting a disabled child is hard and that more support is needed - urgently. The system failed the Clune boys, and is failing so many disabled children and adults and their families.
But these comments are saying the quiet part out loud. That disabled people are seen as a burden; that we are too much; and that we don’t deserve to live with dignity, safety and choice.
Rosemary Kayess, Disability Discrimination Commissioner, said she’s been concerned about the commentary, too.
"The fact that the children may have been autistic and required supports should not be the basis for any justification of their murder," she told the ABC. "We've seen this play out in similar situations where the narrative has been about the burden of disability on parents and families as in some way to downplay the murder of two children”, Ms Kayess said.
In no other instance of murder is the perpetrator excused. Only when it comes to disabled people killed by the very people who were supposed to care for them.
No one would ever say these things about murders of non disabled people.
Disability really is the last taboo and hatred - it seems our community is the acceptable community to harm.
And because of the challenges that disabled people face, parents and careers of disabled children and adults are often cast as heroes and are then sympathised and empathised with when they choose to kill their children.
Ten years ago I wrote about the commentary around a similar incident - the Manrique-Lutz murder suicide in Sydney. The parents, along with two disabled children, were found dead in their home.
The social media commentary was almost identical. I recall my horror reading the comments as well as an anonymous article from a parent who said she had considered doing the same to her disabled children.
Since the Manrique-Lutz murder-suicide in 2016, the Disability Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse and Neglect was held, highlighting the distressing abuse that’s disabled people have faced historically up until 2022.
The many disabled people who gave testimonies, and the stories of those who are no longer here due to violence, neglect and abuse, were powerful. A number of recommendations were made to ensure disabled people are safe and fully included in the community.
But the recent murder-suicide, and the comments justifying it, show that we’ve still got such a long way to go until disabled people are seen as worthy of living.
This shouldn’t be a radical concept. And yet, it is, because of how the world sees us.
Disabled children aren’t burdens.
Disability is not a reason to kill.
Murder is not love.
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