As Rio Tinto and Meridian Energy haggle over the price of power for the Tiwai Pt aluminium smelter, optimism about the metal's future has faded.

Business is a bit of a struggle for Karen and Don Tanner. They have run their electroplating firm for 35 years but, faced with increased competition from cheap imports, struggled to make a $3000 profit last year.

Editorial: If anything useful has been learned from the Labour Party's pursuit of Solid Energy, it is that there are severe limits to the present Government's asset sales.

The Government has grossly underestimated the value of hydro-energy assets to New Zealand citizens, writes Wayne Cartwright.

Indeed TV3 reported last year that David Shearer and John Key hold the same position, that "nobody owns water. It's everybody's resource".

Auckland's water supply is holding strong, despite an unusually balmy summer which has kept carrier companies busy.

Long-serving Solid Energy chief executive Don Elder has joined the exodus from the top of the state-owned enterprise, his departure welcomed on the West Coast.

As 2012 draws to a close there is no such thing as the "good old days" when it comes to water use in town or country.

Debate about the benefits of corporatised or privatised water models has been simmering for several years.

High-level discussions are taking place to stop councils providing water services and pass control to a handful of companies run on commercial lines.

Watercare Services has received 765 complaints since radical changes on July 1 to the way Aucklanders pay for water.

Household power bills have risen by up to $316 this year, and lines companies and retailers are blaming each other for the increases.