The New Zealand government is offering unspecified assistance to keep the Bluff aluminium smelter open in the short term, a move which could save next month’s float of MightyRiverPower, but blows away its hands-off policy on state-owned companies’ commercial affairs. In a statement this morning, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall said the government became involved in direct negotiations with the …

Telecom Corp, which today launched its new services over the ultrafast broadband fibre network, wants to strip out as much as $110 million in annual costs by cutting up to 1,230 jobs. The country’s biggest phone company plans to reduce staff numbers to between 6,300 and 6,600 from 7,530 by the middle of this year through a sinking lid hiring …

The owners of the Bluff smelter issued a swift contradiction to this morning’s claim by its supplier, Meridian Energy, of an impasse over contract negotiations, saying it believes “a commercial agreement can be reached” on electricity supply to the smelter. “Our electricity contract negotiations with Meridian have progressed more in the past two weeks than in the previous nine months,” …