Australia's Disability Commissioner has criticized the public narrative around the deaths of two teenagers with disabilities in Mosman Park, warning against assumptions that caregiver burden justifies tragedy.
The comments, reported by the ABC, address ongoing debate about disability support funding and how society discusses disabled lives and the people who care for them.
The Mosman Park case involved the deaths of two teenagers with disabilities in circumstances that police are investigating. Early media coverage and public commentary focused heavily on the challenges faced by caregivers, particularly parents of children with high support needs.
That framing troubles disability advocates, who argue it implicitly suggests that disabled lives are burdensome and that violence can be understood - if not excused - when caregivers are overwhelmed.
The Disability Commissioner was blunt: this narrative is dangerous. It frames disability as a tragedy that justifies extreme actions, rather than as a natural part of human diversity that requires social support.
Mate, this is uncomfortable territory. Two young people are dead. Families are grieving. But how we talk about these deaths matters, because it shapes how society views disabled people and what level of support we think they deserve.
The problem isn't acknowledging that caring for someone with high support needs can be difficult. It is. Families often struggle with inadequate funding, limited respite care, and systems that make accessing support harder than it should be.
The problem is when "caregiving is hard" becomes "disabled lives are burdensome" and then slides into "we can understand why this happened." That progression devalues disabled lives and implicitly excuses violence.
Disability advocates point out that we don't apply this logic elsewhere. When parents harm children who don't have disabilities, we don't immediately discuss how stressful parenting is or suggest the children were too demanding. We focus on the harm done and the need to prevent it.
But when the victims have disabilities, the conversation shifts. Suddenly we're talking about caregiver stress, lack of support, and how hard it must have been. The victims become secondary to the narrative of burden.
This matters for policy. If society views disability primarily as a burden, it will underfund support services and treat disabled people as problems to be managed rather than citizens with rights.
Australia has made progress on disability rights - the National Disability Insurance Scheme was supposed to revolutionize support. But implementation has been rocky, funding fights are constant, and many families still struggle to access adequate services.
The Disability Commissioner's comments suggest that these systemic failures shouldn't be discussed primarily in the context of tragedies. Disabled people deserve proper support because they're citizens with rights, not because society fears what might happen if caregivers snap.
It's also worth noting that most families caring for disabled members don't harm them, even when support is inadequate and stress is high. Framing violence as an understandable response to caregiving difficulty suggests it's inevitable, which isn't true.
What's needed, advocates say, is a shift in how we think and talk about disability. Not as tragedy or burden, but as part of human diversity requiring social support - like education, healthcare, or infrastructure.
That means adequate funding for NDIS and state disability services. It means accessible housing, employment opportunities, and inclusive education. It means respite care so families get breaks, and support services that actually work.
It also means examining our language and assumptions. When a disabled person dies in questionable circumstances, the story should center on them and what went wrong, not on how difficult caregiving is.
The Mosman Park case is still under investigation, and facts remain limited. But the broader conversation about how Australia supports disabled people and their families needs to happen regardless of what investigators find.
That conversation should be led by disabled people and their advocates, who've been making these points for decades. They know what support looks like, what barriers exist, and how narratives shape funding and policy decisions.
For now, the Disability Commissioner's warning stands: be careful about the stories we tell when disabled people die. Those stories reveal what we value and who we think matters.
Mate, Australia can do better. We've got the resources and the systems - we just need to commit to viewing disabled lives as valuable as any others and funding support accordingly. That's not a radical position. It's basic human decency.
