Wahroonga Friends Bulletin - 13 May 2026
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Wahroonga Friends Bulletin - 13 May 2026
Federal Budget Commits $604 Million
After Bondi Terror Attack
The federal government has committed more than $600 million in new spending measures following the 2025 Bondi terrorist attack, with funding directed toward security, mental health services, community recovery and countering antisemitism. Australia’s Jewish community will receive $300m for security and support as part of this package.Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down the measures in the 2026–27 federal budget on Tuesday night, with the government describing the package as a response to “hate speech, violent extremism and terrorism” following the Bondi attack. According to budget papers, the government will spend $604.2 million on initiatives aimed at countering antisemitism, politically motivated violence and hate crimes.The package includes $36.1 million for stronger hate crime and firearms laws, continued work on a National Gun Buyback Scheme through National Cabinet, and additional funding to disrupt politically and ideologically motivated violence. The budget also includes support measures for people and businesses affected by the attack.
In his budget speech on Tuesday night, Chalmers said that the government was adopting all the recommendations of the antisemitism royal commission. “We’re also taking action to strengthen our national security and national unity since the devastating antisemitic terror attack at Bondi beach,” he said.
Together with the NSW government, the Commonwealth committed $21.7 million through Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements for the Bondi community, including $2 million for Jewish community organisations, $1 million for legal services, grants of up to $25,000 for local small businesses, and $2.8 million for up to eight community recovery coordinators. The office of the e-safety commissioner will get $1m to provide online safety advice addressing antisemitism. Budget papers state: “The Government has invested $42.9 million in mental health supports for the Jewish community and the broader Bondi community, including an interim Medicare Mental Health Centre in Bondi, which is providing free, walk-in mental health support.” Additional funding was also allocated to Jewish community organisations nationally.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the national peak body, will receive $124m for extra security, $22m of which will be drawn from confiscated criminal assets. The government announced $46.7 million “in financial support to the wider Jewish community, including for security and infrastructure upgrades and grant opportunities to support priority projects, including $4.4m to the Chabad of Bondi. Charities Jewish House and JewishCare will get a combined $4m to support the victims of the shooting and their families, and another two relief organisations will be permitted to apply for charity status. The government has also committed $43m toward mental health support for those affected by the shooting and $200,000 to Bondi’s surf lifesaving clubs, whose members came to the aid of victims. Federal Budget Commits $604 Million After Bondi Terror Attack
Additional Closing the Gap Funding
The government will spend $793m over five years on the Closing the Gap program, which includes: $299m on creating an additional 3,000 jobs under the Remote Jobs and Economic Development program, $144m on health infrastructure for Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, $55m to support a school program for at‑risk First Nations young men, $53m for dialysis units and services, and a number of other measures. The complete 2026 Australian budget: choose the news coverage that matters to you
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August 2026 Yearly Meeting: Adwoa Burnley
Speaks on the Sustainability of our Quaker Communities
Queensland Regional Meeting (QRM) is excited to announce Adwoa Burnley as the speaker for our July-August online Yearly Meeting. Adwoa is a lifelong Quaker who has spent nearly 20 years serving in British clerking roles: Clerk of General Meeting for Scotland, Clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, and currently as Clerk of Quakers in Scotland.
Adwoa Burnley has a connection to QRM, as her partner lives and works on the Gold Coast. She spends a few months of the year in sunny Queensland and attends both Brisbane Local Meeting and Mullumbimby Worshipping Group. She presented an online talk in December 2025 to a primarily QRM audience, which was extremely well received, and is the reason we have invited her to share her wisdom more broadly with Australian Quakers.
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| “I have a strong feeling that there is a light within us all that guides us and, if focussed on and nurtured, is a strength that enables me to live a life that is full and balanced.” |
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Adwoa’s talk is titled Addressing Challenges of Sustainability in our Quaker Communities. Adwoa will share her experiences of focusing on discernment and listening to the Inner Light when enacting structural change within our Meetings.
She will relate this to her experience of being part of the reorganisation and creation of simpler structures within Britain Yearly Meeting and Quakers in Scotland. She will share her thoughts on the need to focus on our Quaker discipline in Meetings for Worship for Business, and why she feels this enables communities to grow and learn together.
We will then spend time together for questions and answers, and hopefully some open sharing.
Adwoa Burnley has been actively involved in Quakerism all her life. She has found strength and fellowship in Local and World Gatherings. She describes being a Quaker as central to her existence, and she is never more recharged and whole than with like-minded Quakers.
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| “The feeling in my heart, when part of a gathered Meeting for Worship listening to the Inner Light, is one of the most important feelings that I have ever experienced; it sustains me.” |
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By Naomi Doessel, QRM
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See - 10 Strange Quaker Phrases That Confuse Everyone Else
If you've ever felt lost in a Quaker meeting, wondering if everyone else got a secret dictionary, you are not alone! I discuss some of the unique Quaker phrases and words that can seem like absolute code to outsiders, especially when encountering Quakerism for the first time. We'll explore how these terms are used in Quaker worship and during meeting for worship. See it here 10 Strange Quaker Phrases That Confuse Everyone Else
May QBC - Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist
The May QBC (Quaker Book Club) selection is Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff.
In Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff tells Benezet’s story―who he was, what he did, how he did it, and why it was that William Penn’s “Holy Experiment” of Pennsylvania provided the matrix for the historic transformation the abolitionist educator brought about. Indeed, Chanoff carves out a place for this forgotten American hero as a pioneering figure among those who launched American ideals onto the world stage. Read the Friends Journal review, here. Obtain a copy here Anthony Benezet
e- Wahroonga Send news of f/Friends and newsletter items to quiver...@yahoo.com.au Agenda items for Business Meeting should be emailed at wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info or handed to a co-clerk. Visit us at "Our Home" First days (Sunday), 9.30 am Meeting for Worship - Wahroonga Friends Meeting, your local peace church. Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) 59 Boundary Road Wahroonga NSW 2076 Email:wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info Web: Wahroonga Local Meeting | Australia Yearly Meeting A Zoom meeting occurs 9.30 am Sundays Meeting link Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting 918 558 7747 Passcode: 554662 Phone: 02 8015 6011 Please contact Paul Carter if you have any problems.
Federal Budget Commits $604 Million
After Bondi Terror Attack
The federal government has committed more than $600 million in new spending measures following the 2025 Bondi terrorist attack, with funding directed toward security, mental health services, community recovery and countering antisemitism. Australia’s Jewish community will receive $300m for security and support as part of this package.Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down the measures in the 2026–27 federal budget on Tuesday night, with the government describing the package as a response to “hate speech, violent extremism and terrorism” following the Bondi attack. According to budget papers, the government will spend $604.2 million on initiatives aimed at countering antisemitism, politically motivated violence and hate crimes.The package includes $36.1 million for stronger hate crime and firearms laws, continued work on a National Gun Buyback Scheme through National Cabinet, and additional funding to disrupt politically and ideologically motivated violence. The budget also includes support measures for people and businesses affected by the attack.
In his budget speech on Tuesday night, Chalmers said that the government was adopting all the recommendations of the antisemitism royal commission. “We’re also taking action to strengthen our national security and national unity since the devastating antisemitic terror attack at Bondi beach,” he said.
Together with the NSW government, the Commonwealth committed $21.7 million through Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements for the Bondi community, including $2 million for Jewish community organisations, $1 million for legal services, grants of up to $25,000 for local small businesses, and $2.8 million for up to eight community recovery coordinators. The office of the e-safety commissioner will get $1m to provide online safety advice addressing antisemitism. Budget papers state: “The Government has invested $42.9 million in mental health supports for the Jewish community and the broader Bondi community, including an interim Medicare Mental Health Centre in Bondi, which is providing free, walk-in mental health support.” Additional funding was also allocated to Jewish community organisations nationally.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the national peak body, will receive $124m for extra security, $22m of which will be drawn from confiscated criminal assets. The government announced $46.7 million “in financial support to the wider Jewish community, including for security and infrastructure upgrades and grant opportunities to support priority projects, including $4.4m to the Chabad of Bondi. Charities Jewish House and JewishCare will get a combined $4m to support the victims of the shooting and their families, and another two relief organisations will be permitted to apply for charity status. The government has also committed $43m toward mental health support for those affected by the shooting and $200,000 to Bondi’s surf lifesaving clubs, whose members came to the aid of victims. Federal Budget Commits $604 Million After Bondi Terror Attack
Additional Closing the Gap Funding
The government will spend $793m over five years on the Closing the Gap program, which includes: $299m on creating an additional 3,000 jobs under the Remote Jobs and Economic Development program, $144m on health infrastructure for Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, $55m to support a school program for at‑risk First Nations young men, $53m for dialysis units and services, and a number of other measures. The complete 2026 Australian budget: choose the news coverage that matters to you
|
August 2026 Yearly Meeting: Adwoa Burnley
Speaks on the Sustainability of our Quaker Communities
Queensland Regional Meeting (QRM) is excited to announce Adwoa Burnley as the speaker for our July-August online Yearly Meeting. Adwoa is a lifelong Quaker who has spent nearly 20 years serving in British clerking roles: Clerk of General Meeting for Scotland, Clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, and currently as Clerk of Quakers in Scotland.
Adwoa Burnley has a connection to QRM, as her partner lives and works on the Gold Coast. She spends a few months of the year in sunny Queensland and attends both Brisbane Local Meeting and Mullumbimby Worshipping Group. She presented an online talk in December 2025 to a primarily QRM audience, which was extremely well received, and is the reason we have invited her to share her wisdom more broadly with Australian Quakers.
|
|
| “I have a strong feeling that there is a light within us all that guides us and, if focussed on and nurtured, is a strength that enables me to live a life that is full and balanced.” |
|
|
Adwoa’s talk is titled Addressing Challenges of Sustainability in our Quaker Communities. Adwoa will share her experiences of focusing on discernment and listening to the Inner Light when enacting structural change within our Meetings.
She will relate this to her experience of being part of the reorganisation and creation of simpler structures within Britain Yearly Meeting and Quakers in Scotland. She will share her thoughts on the need to focus on our Quaker discipline in Meetings for Worship for Business, and why she feels this enables communities to grow and learn together.
We will then spend time together for questions and answers, and hopefully some open sharing.
Adwoa Burnley has been actively involved in Quakerism all her life. She has found strength and fellowship in Local and World Gatherings. She describes being a Quaker as central to her existence, and she is never more recharged and whole than with like-minded Quakers.
|
|
| “The feeling in my heart, when part of a gathered Meeting for Worship listening to the Inner Light, is one of the most important feelings that I have ever experienced; it sustains me.” |
|
|
By Naomi Doessel, QRM
|
See - 10 Strange Quaker Phrases That Confuse Everyone Else
If you've ever felt lost in a Quaker meeting, wondering if everyone else got a secret dictionary, you are not alone! I discuss some of the unique Quaker phrases and words that can seem like absolute code to outsiders, especially when encountering Quakerism for the first time. We'll explore how these terms are used in Quaker worship and during meeting for worship. See it here 10 Strange Quaker Phrases That Confuse Everyone Else
May QBC - Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist
The May QBC (Quaker Book Club) selection is Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff.
In Anthony Benezet: Quaker, Abolitionist, Anti-Racist, preeminent biographer David Chanoff tells Benezet’s story―who he was, what he did, how he did it, and why it was that William Penn’s “Holy Experiment” of Pennsylvania provided the matrix for the historic transformation the abolitionist educator brought about. Indeed, Chanoff carves out a place for this forgotten American hero as a pioneering figure among those who launched American ideals onto the world stage. Read the Friends Journal review, here. Obtain a copy here Anthony Benezet
e- Wahroonga Send news of f/Friends and newsletter items to quiver...@yahoo.com.au Agenda items for Business Meeting should be emailed at wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info or handed to a co-clerk. Visit us at "Our Home" First days (Sunday), 9.30 am Meeting for Worship - Wahroonga Friends Meeting, your local peace church. Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) 59 Boundary Road Wahroonga NSW 2076 Email:wmnwah...@quakersaustralia.info Web: Wahroonga Local Meeting | Australia Yearly Meeting A Zoom meeting occurs 9.30 am Sundays Meeting link Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting 918 558 7747 Passcode: 554662 Phone: 02 8015 6011 Please contact Paul Carter if you have any problems.
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