UPDATED 4.57PM The police plan to prosecute Malcolm Rewa for the murder of Susan Burdett.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush said in a statement that the Solicitor-General Una Jagose will apply to the High Court to retry Malcom Rewa for Burdett's 1992 murder.

Bush said a team of senior homicide detectives have started preparing work on the file, under the oversight of Detective Superintendent Dave Lynch.

Burdett's family have been told, as has Rewa.

Burdett's brother Jim, confirmed he had been told of the development but did not want to comment.

Tim McKinnell, the private investigator whose work led to Pora's convictions for the crimes being quashed, welcomed the decision.

"We have been asking for a review of all of the information and this is a positive step in the right direction and we will offer all the assistance we can."

One of Teina Pora's legal team, lawyer Ingrid Squire, said the team had been writing to the Solicitor-General inviting her to take this step.

"We are very pleased at the decision," Squire told the Herald. "In our view it is the appropriate step and one more step in the right direction."

Squire last year said that in her view the case easily mets the threshold of "exceptional circumstances" required for a stay of proceedings to be lifted.

"What I think we have to remember is that the two juries that considered the charge against Malcolm Rewa were of the belief and understanding that another man had confessed to Susan's murder, and secondly that that other man, Teina Pora, had been found guilty by a jury," she told Fairfax.

"What we now know is that those confessions weren't worth the paper they were written on, [they were] utterly, wholly unreliable. And secondly Teina Pora has been found to be innocent, so it's a whole new ball game."

New Zealand Herald journalist Phil Taylor told Larry Williams a third trial of Rewa would be under different circumstances to the first two.

"It was possibly confusing for the jury that somebody was already convicted of the murder and that may of been a factor in not being able to decide."

Bush said in a statement: "A team of senior and experienced homicide detectives under the oversight of Detective Superintendent Dave Lynch have commenced preparation work on the file, and will work with the Manukau Crown Solicitor to make the application in the High Court and manage the case through to a third trial if one is granted."

He said police will work with the Manukau Crown Solicitor to make the application in the High Court and manage the case through to a third trial if one is granted.

Rewa was tried twice for the murder of Burdett in 1998, and in both trials the jury was unable to reach a verdict.

Pora was twice wrongly convicted of the murder.

After his conviction was quashed, the decision to stay the prosecution of Rewa was reviewed at the request of police, Bush said.

Susan Burdett was a 39-year-old accounts clerk and an avid ten-pin bowler who lived alone.

She returned late from club night at the Manukau Superstrike on Monday, March 23, 1992 and, after showering, was raped and battered to death. Her killer posed her body, crossing her legs, which were positioned off the bed.

Lying on the bed beside her was the softball bat she kept for protection.

TIMELINE

March 23, 1992: Susan Burdett raped and murdered in her home in south Auckland.

March 23, 1993: Teina Pora charged with burglary, sexual violation and murder.

June 1994: Pora convicted as a party to the rape and murder on the basis of confessions he made. Sentenced to life in prison.

May 1996: Rewa arrested after attacking a young woman in the inner Auckland suburb of Remuera; DNA from Rewa's father found to match semen from Burdett crime scene.

1998: Rewa eventually convicted of the rape of 27 women, including Burdett but two juries fail to reach a verdict on murder.

May 30, 1998: Rewa convicted on multiple sex charges dating back to 1987 and sentenced to preventive detention with a minimum non-parole period of 22 years. He was convicted of the rape of Burdett the following year.

1999: Court of Appeal quashes Pora's convictions as a result of the DNA evidence implicating Rewa and evidence that Rewa acted alone.

June 2000: Pora was again convicted at his retrial, based on his confessions and witnesses, some of whom, it later emerged, were paid. His appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed.

September 2009: Private investigator and former police detective Tim McKinnel visits Pora in prison and is given permission to make inquires on Pora's behalf.

September 2011: Pora team files notice of application for the Royal Prerogative of Mercy but two years later are granted an appeal to the Privy Council.

May 2012: Police's criminal profiling expert goes public in Herald with view Pora not involved; Pora's team sue police claiming it is unlawfully withholding evidence, Burdett's brother says Pora is innocent.

February 2013: It is revealed police paid some prosecution witnesses.

August, 2013: The Police Association call for an independent inquiry into Pora's convictions.

April, 2014: Pora granted parole at his 13th appearance before the board and after spending 21 years in jail.

November, 2014: Five-member Privy Council panel hears appeal.

March 3. 2015: Privy Council quash convictions.