The Legislative Assembly has ordered the Labor government to publish “secret” data about how much each ministerial office spends on staffing, following a motion by Opposition Leader Leanne Castley.

“Today’s order sends a clear message to government that the era of secrecy is over,” Ms Castley said.

The Assembly’s direction requires the government to publish the data, including total staffing expenditure for each ministerial office for each of the last five years and the current financial year, within 14 days.

Castley said staffing details have been a tightly-kept secret for the entire tenure of the Labor government and even ministers were not informed about the staffing entitlements of other ministerial offices.

Typically, the government only discloses total staffing numbers and overall expenditure, with the most recent data dating back to 2022-23.