Mr Northwood said Masters had at one point agreed to be sentenced. He had then asked for a disputed facts hearing and now he was asking that his guilty plea be revoked so his matter could go to trial.
He said Masters' reasons for wanting to pursue the matter were "at least doubtful".
Lawyer Ron Mansfield represented Masters at court today.
He said he had reviewed part of the court file and appreciated that there "will be a sense of grave frustration".
Justice Pamela Andrews said that was "putting it mildly".
Mr Mansfield said Masters had not had a chance to review intercepted conversations which make up part of the Crown case against him.
The Crown has 110,000 different pieces of intercepted communication, some of which do not involve Masters.
Mr Mansfield said he had not yet been assigned to the case by legal aid and was not able to receive disclosure on behalf of Masters.
"This is no minor matter and I could not undertake it unless there is some compensation, all be it at the marginal rate provided by the ministry."
Mr Mansfield said Masters intended to revoke his guilty plea.
"It seems someone needs to assist him, otherwise he will get nowhere."
Mr Mansfield said Masters could not review the intercepted conversations because there were no facilities to do so in prison.
He said he could arrange someone to take the recorded conversations into Masters and supervise while Masters listened to them.
Mr Mansfield said Masters was not "thumbing the system" and had had 5146 pages of evidence removed from his cell by prison authorities.
"Delaying the process is not advantageous for him and frustrating the court is not advantageous."
Justice Andrews remanded Masters in custody for another month while his legal aid application was renewed.
Masters and 43 other gang members were arrested in May, 2008 after a police raid which seized several hundred thousand dollars worth of methamphetamine.
Several members of the gang were jailed in 2009 on drugs charges.
APNZ eg lb
-APNZ
