'Embarrassed', but GM reaffirms Wagga council won't investigate knackery leak

After details were leaked to the Ray Hadley show on 2GB in April, Wagga City Council issued a statement on April 17 revealing its investigation into the slaughtering of hundreds of horses at a property in Downside.

The media scrutiny that followed resulted in state investigations being impacted, according to Wagga Council general manager Peter Thompson.

Following questions raised by councillor Richard Foley at the council meeting on April 29, Mr Thompson responded that an investigation into the confidentiality breach would not be pursued.

"I can neither compel transparency nor integrity and any resources devoted to that task would almost certainly be wasted," Mr Thompson was quoted as saying in the May 13 business paper.

"As a chamber we should be embarrassed by the inability to assure confidentiality and I, together with most councillors, share this.

"We should be embarrassed by the inability to assure confidentiality."

Mr Thompson said that "for the most part" he would continue to provide full disclosure of council operations to the councillors.

The confidentiality breach did not have a major impact on council's investigations due to the leak occurring at the end of council's inquiry, according to Mr Thompson, who was asked about the leak's impact by councillor Rod Kendall on May 13.

"As councillors are aware, we briefed you because we were at the end of our process and we were about to take regulatory action," Mr Thompson said.

"It hasn't had a big impact on our steps."

However, Mr Thompson said that the media scrutiny that resulted from the information leak has impacted state government inquiries.

"It has had an impact on the state government agencies because the people that they were about to talk to in their investigation and collect evidence from have been reluctant or have refused to participate in that process," the general manager said.

"I think it has harmed the state government's ability to undertake the investigations that they were well underway with."

A parliamentary inquiry is continuing its investigation into the alleged knackery.

Mr Thompson and Fiona Piltz will attend the inquiry as witnesses next week.

"Between the two of us we should be able to cover off those questions," Mr Thompson said.