Prime Minister John Key believes Labour and the Greens will not actually follow through with their plan to radically reform the wholesale electricity market should they be elected to government.
The Opposition parties combined to announce plans last week to establish a new agency, New Zealand Power, which would act as a single buyer of wholesale electricity.
The parties claim the plan would cut the nation's power bills by up to $700 million a year, which would lower household power bills by as much as $330 a year and give the economy a $450m annual boost.
However, those savings would come at the expense of power companies, including Mighty River Power and others earmarked by the Government for partial sale.
Jittery investors who have applied for shares in state-owned Mighty River Power have been given until midnight on May 1 to withdraw their applications if they think the Labour-Greens' new power policy could damage the value of their shares.
Prime Minister John Key told TV3's Firstline this morning that the opposition parties' policy was not a major worry to him.
"Firstly, I don't think Labour and the Greens are going to win [the 2014 election]. Secondly, I don't think that they'll actually implement the policy - it would be way harder than it looks. Thirdly, if they did they'd have to unwind it at some point. It hasn't worked in countries that have done this."
Mr Key also said power would not be cheaper under a Labour-Greens government because of additional costs as a result of their Emissions Trading Scheme policy.
Labour and the Greens last week announced a return to central planning for the electricity industry and a move away from market forces.
They said that if they formed the Government after next year's election they would set up a new agency to buy power from generating companies, depending on the cost generation plus what Labour and the Greens deem to be "a fair return on their capital".
