Jesinta responds to Cleo post backlash

Mother-of-two Franklin posted a lengthy story on her Instagram just after 2pm on Wednesday, hours after police revealed the discovery of Cleo in a home in Carnarvon.

The 30-year-old model and wife of Indigenous AFL superstar Lance Franklin she said she was posting her comments because “we need to do better for all children who go missing”.

“Without taking away from the joy of finding a missing child alive and well, I can’t help but think about the disparity that exists in this country between missing children who are white and Indigenous children when it comes to the visibility and coverage of the case,” the post read before being deleted by Thursday morning.

“I have read so many heartbreaking stories of missing Indigenous children that garner hardly any media coverage or the social media coverage that a case like Cleo’s did.

“I have no doubt the widespread broadcasting of information in regards to the case assisted the phenomenal efforts of the WA police force in locating this beautiful little girl and reuniting her with her family,” she said.

Reports suggest the model faced backlash to her suggestion, some of it racially charged. Ms Franklin has now responded to the negativity.

“Thank you to everyone who engaged in meaningful conversations in regards to my post about the lack of equality in the visibility of cases of missing children,” the post began.

“Confronting and often forgotten topics like this are important to continue to talk about.

“I received an outpouring of messages about the lack of action and media attention for not only missing children, regardless of ethnicity, have an equal presence in the media and that articles to come, give voice to this disparity and injustice.”

Franklin said “this doesn’t take away from anyone else’s story or pain” but “highlights how important it really is”.

“I have posted about this in the past but unfortunately not many people paid much attention,” the Instagram story continued.

“Tonight I will be posting again so we can continue to educate ourselves, myself included.

“I have had an influx of people reach out to me saying they had no idea about the statistics or that this issue even existed.

“This is not the first and won’t be the last time I speak up and shine a light on issues of equality and injustice.”

In an exclusive interview with news.com.au, former homicide Detective Gary Jubelin, who had a 34-year career with NSW Police in which he worked on many high profile cases, including that of missing toddler William Tyrrell and the Bowraville murders, has said there can be a disparity in how missing children cases are treated.

“I understand what Jesinta was saying, that it’s important that all victims get the same response,” said Mr Jubelin.

“I have to say in the past, with Bowraville, that it was clear to me that because the victims were Aboriginal, and also socio-economic factors come into play, that they were in the lower socio-economic group, that they didn’t get the resources supplied initially. The ramifications of which play out to this day.”

Bowraville refers to the deaths of three children that occurred over five months from September 1990 to February 1991 in Bowraville, NSW. All three victims were Indigenous, and all disappeared from the same street after parties in Bowraville’s Aboriginal community. Police believe all three were killed by the same person.

A white man has been tried and acquitted of two of the three murders.

Franklin is a mum to daughter Tullulah, 20 months, and son Rocky, seven months, who she shares with her husband of five years.

The ABC reported that in December 2019, Indigenous people accounted for 17.5 per cent of all unsolved missing persons cases in Western Australia, despite making up just three per cent of the local population.

In August 2019, the families of 15 missing Aboriginal children united for a statewide rally in NSW to raise awareness for Indigenous cases, according to a report by The Guardian.

Cleo was miraculously found alive on Wednesday, 18 days after vanishing from her family’s tent in a remote campsite in Western Australia.

Police broke their way into a locked house in Carnarvon, 75km from where she went missing, about 1am on Wednesday and found the girl in one of the rooms.

Originally published as Jesinta Franklin responds to Instagram response to Cleo Smith post