07-02-2026: On Friday January 30, a double murder suicide is suspected to have taken place in the Perth suburb of Mosman Park in Western Australia.  A family of four was found dead inside the house, with a note that contained the words “don’t enter” and “call police”. The note was found by a person known to the family possibly attending the home for a pre-arranged medical appointment for two teenaged boys who had health conditions. The bodies of the 50-year-old father, a 49 year old mother and their two boys – aged 14 and 16 – were discovered at the home by police.[1] Three pets at the house – two dogs and a cat – were also found dead. The police have not revealed how the family lost their lives. The family was “not known” to police at all, i.e. they had no criminal records.[2] The family has been named as the Clune family, with father Jarrod 50, mother Maiwenna Goasdowe 49, and their sons Leon 16 and Otis 14.  The boys had significant health challenges related to autism and had attended one of Perth’s most prestigious schools for boys. Christ Church Grammar School.  In 2015, the mother, who was born in France, had posed for a photograph about the closure of a therapy clinic offering specialised autism services.[3]

NDIS cuts

At this early stage, the investigation is just beginning. Yet information gathered so far does indicate that the parents were pushed beyond a breaking point in a long process of despairing struggle to obtain adequate care needs for their children. A friend of the family who wished to remain anonymous stated that the couple were desperate for help after their NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) funding had been cut. “The very people the NDIS was created for are the very ones who can’t get the services they so desperately need…the constant battle for services to help with their very high support needs boys was exhausting, never ending and filled with rejection…I’m devastated that they reached this point but no one can understand the strain, isolation and desperation they felt.”  A family carer, Maddie Louise Page, who had looked after the boys for more than a decade, released a statement claiming the NDIS had failed the family. “My heart feels unbearably heavy knowing that the NDIS system failed them, and that they were made to feel they had no other choice.”[4]

Although the NDIS was brought in essentially as a move to privatise disability care and support services, parts of the scheme do provide some people with adequate care, while leaving others with nothing. The federal government allowed the now $50 billion a year scheme to grow much faster than anticipated. Fraud, price gouging and even organised crime took place as some providers took advantage of government programs. State governments took the opportunity to close their remaining disability services, leaving the federally funded NDIS the only option for support. Reportedly, 30% of NDIS plans reassessed between May and October last year saw funding reduced by an average of 22.5%. Some participants and their families launched appeals against the cuts to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART), only to come up against the federal government spending 60 million dollars on external lawyers to fight the appeals. Some have reportedly died waiting for an outcome.[5]

“Thriving Kids”

The federal government is now pushing forward with the Orwellian named Thriving Kids program, claiming that the NDIS was never meant to accommodate children under 9 years of age with “mild to moderate” autism. Thriving Kids is set to begin in July 2026, but there are strong concerns that children could continue to be removed from NDIS before the supposed new supports are in place. The government made the Thriving Kids decision without consulting virtually anyone amongst medical and psychological care support specialists.[6] Autism is a complex neurological condition, and it contains a wide spectrum of ways in which it affects the individual and their interaction with society. Some individuals with this condition need very little assistance with day-to-day life, while others need significantly more. The concept of “mild to moderate” autism is itself contested by those with lived experience and neuro-inclusive advocacy groups.

Instead of receiving funding through the NDIS, those children under 9 moved on to Thriving Kids will supposedly be supported through early childhood centres, schools, Medicare and community services. Largely, it places the onus on schools,[7] which in the era of neoliberalism have been struggling for adequate funding for decades. They barely have enough resources to cope with students without any form of disability or neurodevelopmental issue, let alone for those who do. Under Thriving Kids, there will be no mechanism whatever for one-on-one psychological or specialist assistance for those who need it. Separating children under the age of nine with a neurological condition from NDIS is itself discriminatory, and it is highly unlikely that such children will receive the care and support they need amongst schools and public programs in general. Thriving Kids is a cruel diversion, and yet another method of cutting funding for disability and care services from those (children) who require it.

Australia once did have a comprehensive health care system, which was publicly funded and contained excellent quality. Decades of neoliberal cutbacks have reduced this system to a shell of what it once was. Ironically, Canberra today joins with Washington in waging hybrid wars against the supposedly “authoritarian” adversaries of Iran, Russia and China. However, health care in the Islamic Republic of Iran is a constitutional right.[8] In the Russian Federation, free health care is provided by the state.[9] In the People’s Republic of China, basic medical insurance covers 95% of the population.[10]

Disability Care, Health Care and Aged Care should all come under one system which receives universal public funding. Working people should never have to fight “their” government for the most basic of healthcare services which their taxes pay for many times over.  To achieve this, workers will have to finally do away with the brutal capitalist system, which has entered a stage of terminal decline. What is required is a workers’ party which fights for a workers’ government. Healthcare for all who require it at every stage of life will likely be the first priority for a state based on public ownership of the means of production and a planned economy – the first step towards a socialist humanity.

Workers League

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

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[1] https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crime/mosman-park-double-murder-suicide-wording-of-note-found-at-scene-of-mott-close-tragedy-revealed-c-21477224 (04-02-2026)

[2] https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/585675/what-we-know-about-the-suspected-murder-suicide-of-a-perth-family-of-four (04-02-2026)

[3] www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/wa/2026/01/31/murder-suicide-family-named (04-02-2026)

[4] www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/friend-claims-mosman-park-murder-suicide-family-had-faced-ndis-cut-20260201-p5nynd.html (04-02-2026)

[5] www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-30/families-frayed-by-ndis-cuts-brace-for-more-change-in-2026/106269362 (04-02-2026)

[6] www.cyda.org.au/rushed-thriving-kids-rollout-risks-leaving-families-without-critical-support/ (04-02-2026)

[7] www.blog.aare.edu.au/can-thriving-kids-now-save-the-ndis/ (04-02-2026)

[8] www.borgenproject.org/facts-about-healthcare-in-iran/ (04-02-2026)

[9] www.statista.com/topics/4824/healthcare-in-russia/#topicOverview (04-02-2026)

[10] www.gov.cn/news/202507/24/content_WS6881c72cc6d0868f4e8f463b.html (04-02-2026)


Image: Police investigating following the tragic incident at Mosman Park in Perth, Western Australia.