Brisbane construction firm Canstruct made $43m profit running Nauru detention centre last year

A Brisbane construction firm made a profit of more than $43m for running Australia’s immigration detention centre on Nauru last financial year.

Canstruct International’s sole contract is with the Australian government to provide garrison and welfare services at the regional processing centre on Nauru, which it has done since October 2017.

In its first reporting period as a company, Canstruct International has disclosed it made an after tax profit of $43.16m, with a turnover of almost $212m. Almost $140m was spent on suppliers and employees, and it paid $8.6m in tax.

Canstruct International is preparing to hand over control of the centre to the Nauru Regional Processing Centre Corporation (NRPCC), the Nauruan government’s commercial entity. The NRPCC was slated to take the contract on 31 October, but that has been pushed to April, with the Australian government retaining the services of Canstruct International.

Department of Home Affairs bureaucrats told Senate estimates last month it was seeking this extension but were waiting on approval from the Nauruan government.

The previous 13-month contract, which expired at the end of last month, was for about $377m, or $28.9m per month.

The total extended contract is valued at $591,439,817, increasing the government’s monthly payment to $34.4m.

Canstruct took over operations of the Nauru immigration detention centre from Broadspectrum, previously known as Transfield Services, in October 2017.

A Spanish multinational, Ferrovial, bought Broadspectrum in April 2016 and not long after announced it was abandoning work in offshore detention. It intended to leave the role in February 2017 but the Australian government unilaterally exercised its options to extend for another eight months, at which point Canstruct took over.

Canstruct had been working on Nauru since 2012 but largely on construction and infrastructure projects, but didn’t appear to have any prior experience running welfare services.

It was accused at the time for taking up a “poison chalice” by involving itself with the internationally criticised system.

There are still 22 refugee and asylum seeker children on Nauru, as well as hundreds of adults. Two families with five children between them were transferred to Australia this week, amid a health crisis on the island.

Multiple medical and human rights organisations have called for the evacuation of the people sent to Nauru by Australia, citing widespread mental illness, including suicide attempts and self-harm.

The government has indicated it intended to bring all children and families to Australia by the end of the year. Neither the prime minister Scott Morrison or his ministers had disputed the report, although reasons given differed. The home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, said the transfers were not because of medical concerns but because of the high cost to taxpayers in keeping people on Nauru.

However this week Morrison told Sky News he had never publicly said all children would be brought off by the new year, and that the policy remained unchanged.

He said transfers would continue to the US, and to Australia if medical care was required.

He confirmed no one brought to Australia for medical treatment would be resettled in Australia.

Morrison had previously said the government was working “quietly” to bring refugees to Australia, while at the same time the government continued its challenge to the federal court’s ability to hear cases relating to urgent medical transfers.