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SenateTuesday 13 October 2026

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (14:43): My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Home Affairs, Senator Watt, in regard to the Community Language Schools Grants program, a Liberal government program that the Albanese government expanded with $26 million in taxpayer money while retaining the purpose to teach foreign languages to schoolchildren up to HSC level.

UAE terror pilot Hamam al-Hammami has admitted his radicalisation started while studying at my centre in Broadmeadows, which received $68,000 under this program. At the time, he was an adult university student, not a primary or high school student. My centre is open to all ages.

There is a co-located school called MYCollege which is a different legal entity. The grant didn't go to the school; it went to the radical Islamic centre. What steps have been taken to ensure the funds given to my centre were actually used to teach schoolchildren Arabic?

SourceSenate, Tuesday 13 October 2026 — official recordTA-261013-senate-db9201e91993:s104