Chief Justice floats 25 percent limitation on partial privatisations

By Pattrick Smellie Jan. 31 (BusinessDesk) - Chief Justice Sian Elias has floated the prospect of the Supreme Court restraining the government to selling no more than 25 percent of state-owned power companies while it sorts out a long term solution to Maori claims to freshwater rights under the Treaty of Waitangi. Her comments came at the end of the first morning of two days' scheduled hearings on the New Zealand Maori Council's challenge to the government's partial assets sales policy. It followed lengthy questioning of the council's lawye...