The Government's asset sales plans suffered a setback last week when the Supreme Court announced it would not deliver a decision on the Maori Council's water rights case until the end of February.
That comes as more questions are being raised about plans to partially privatise power companies.
More than $26 million has already been spent on preparing for the floats, including $3.1 million on advertising and communications. About two-thirds of that has been spent by Treasury, and the rest by state-owned power companies.
The Green Party says the costs will balloon into the "hundreds of millions" once the loss of income is taken into account.
The Government wants to start the sales, with Mighty River Power up first, in June.
Political commentator Linda Clark this morning told Firstline that by delaying the Government's plans, the court was asserting its authority.
"Courts don't work to deadlines," says Ms Clark. "That's not how the court process goes. The courts are independent of government…so the quiet note that the court issued last week that said, 'I'm sorry, we're not going to meet that deadline, we're going to be a couple of weeks or a week or so behind that,' I think that was par for the course.
"It's part of the court asserting its authority here."
- VIDEO" Linda Clark talks to Firstline
Ms Clark also says there are doubt over how much the Government would get for the power companies now, as demand for electricity is flat.
"There is a question as to whether they would get as much for those electricity companies this year and next year as they would if they had sold them last year," says Ms Clark.
"The Government of course wanted to go ahead with this asset sales programme last year, and had to defer."
Ms Clark also says the plans to sell 49 percent in each power company only six months apart is "ambitious".
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