Australian company Canstruct was paid more than $300 million by the federal government to care for refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru last financial year, even as the number of people on the island dwindled to a few dozen and a diminishing number of services were being delivered to them.
The $1.82 billion paid to Canstruct over five years for the Nauru contract added significantly to the wealth of Queensland’s Murphy family, who were also Liberal National Party donors. Their family-owned company, Canstruct International, posted profits of $127 million after tax in 2021-22 bringing total profits to more than $442 million up to the contract’s conclusion in late 2022.