Pauline Hanson Calls for Grant Review After Mosque Linked to Alleged Hijacker Received Taxpayer Funds

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has called for an urgent review of Australia's community grant system after it was revealed that a Melbourne mosque, reportedly visited by the alleged hijacker of a Flydubai flight, received nearly $70,000 in taxpayer funds. The mosque, MyCentre in Broadmeadows, was attended by Hamam al-Hammami, who is accused of attempting to hijack and crash an Israel-bound passenger jet on September 30.

According to the United Arab Emirates Attorney-General, al-Hammami confessed that he began drifting towards extremism in 2017 while studying in Melbourne. He reportedly told investigators he became acquainted with individuals at the MyCentre mosque during that period. The mosque received over $68,000 in community grants through the Department of Home Affairs, according to GrantConnect records. These grants included $36,960 in 2024 and $31,176 in 2025 under the Community Language Schools Grants Program, intended to help young people maintain languages other than English.

Hanson expressed outrage at the revelations, stating, "The prospect that taxpayer funds could be furthering terrorist activities is a truly shocking revelation." She questioned whether the government sought security advice before approving the grants and if other organizations linked to individuals under investigation had received similar funding. "The same government that refused to name radical Islamic terrorism for days after the Bondi massacre, dragged its feet on a Royal Commission, and fails to confront Islamic extremism head-on is now at risk of funding extremism too," Hanson said.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke stated on Sunday that he did not have specific information on the grants and would investigate the matter. "It is really important that we use every lever we have to be able to make sure that we are denying oxygen to people who want to do us harm," Burke commented. "We need to make sure that we are making it harder for them to operate in every single way."

Al-Hammami's alleged radicalization in Australia involved exposure to Takfiri ideology through extremist literature and online content glorifying terrorist organizations and suicide attacks. UAE prosecutors stated he also drew inspiration from the September 11, 2001 attacks, developing a plan to carry out a similar operation using an aircraft. Takfir is an extremist doctrine where one Muslim declares another a non-believer, sometimes used to justify violence.

Al-Hammami allegedly attempted to crash Flydubai flight 1073 into a terminal at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport. He reportedly wounded the captain with a crash axe while trying to gain control of the plane. Passengers and crew managed to regain control of the aircraft, which experienced a rapid descent. The Australian Federal Police also reportedly provided a $500 donation to the mosque for an iftar dinner in 2018, a year after al-Hammami left Australia.