One unnamed adviser left Julia Gillard's office with a golden handshake of $129,563.49.

There were three other individual payouts above $90,000 and a number in the vicinity of $80,000.

For the first time, the data shows definitively the high cost to taxpayers of even minor political manoeuvrings in government.

Severance payouts to Chris Bowen's ministerial advisers following his resignation in March, sparked by an abortive leadership ballot, totalled $350,000. And that was for a leadership showdown that failed to materialise, after Simon Crean fell on his sword in a bid to smoke out Kevin Rudd and end the stalemate.

Mr Bowen had been Ms Gillard's minister for tertiary education, science and small business, despite also being the focal point of the push to restore Kevin Rudd to the Lodge.

But the Bowen office's $350,000 severance bill for the March ''no-show'' was dwarfed by the cost of the real thing when Mr Rudd finally succeeded in pushing out Ms Gillard in late June.

Payouts to Gillard staffers following that seismic event reached $1.34 million, exclusively from her private office.

The staff separation cost of the March 2013 crisis, in which Mr Rudd refused to challenge, was $1,318,833 for 34 staff. That was the bill for the staff of key Rudd backers in the cabinet; Mr Bowen, Martin Ferguson, Mr Crean and Kim Carr, plus a parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs and Pacific island affairs, Richard Marles, the whip, Joel Fitzgibbon and two of his deputies.

The cost of payouts from the June 26 challenge, in which Ms Gillard was defeated and replaced by Mr Rudd as prime minister, was $3,411,480.61 for 82 staff - 27 of whom went from Ms Gillard's prime ministerial suite immediately after Mr Rudd returned.

That political implosion gave rise to a slew of cabinet ministers refusing to serve under Mr Rudd and resulted in a significant reshuffle, and consequent additional turnover of staff.

Outgoing education minister Peter Garrett quit, leading nine of his personal advisers into the harshness of the post political labour market, their path eased by a combined payout of $365,593.67.

Wayne Swan's departure led to a bill for six of his advisers of $291,645,44.

The information follows a series of questions on notice from South Australian Liberal senator Cory Bernardi in his capacity as member of the Senate finance and public administration legislation committee. In November he asked the secretary of the Department of Finance, David Tune, how many staff were made redundant after the March 21 ''aborted leadership challenge''.

Senator Bernardi also asked how many staff were made redundant following the resignations of Mr Swan, Mr Garrett, Craig Emerson, Greg Combet, Stephen Conroy and Joe Ludwig.