Mackenzie District Mayor Anne Munro steps down as cancer worsens
Photo:
RNZ / Nathan Mckinnon
Mackenzie District Mayor Anne Munro is stepping aside due to her cancer diagnosis.
Munro
shared the news last year
and testing have confirmed the cancer is metastatic.
She said while treatment was ongoing, her prognosis remained uncertain.
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Despite the revised costs, Hernandez expressed scepticism the project would not blow its budget. "The cost estimates have shifted so much, I wouldn't be surprised if there's scope creep down the line, and Waikato Uni ends up having to come back to the government with a begging bowl, because the cost ends up being more than what they thought it would be." Green Party tertiary education spokesperson Francisco Hernandez. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith Brown said the Tertiary Education Commission had provided advice to the Universities Minister, Dr Shane Reti, which showed Waikato was in a strong financial position, and could leverage its balance sheet. He and the Prime Minister were satisfied Waikato could meet its end of the bargain, and if the philanthropists could not come through the university had the "financial firepower" to backstop it. "They are confident, having reached out to their donors, that they've got really strong pledges to be able to support that, and we have also wanted to be reassured that those pledges are real. That's why the Treasury work happened, and why we've taken a little bit of time to work through it," Christopher Luxon said. Waikato University said its planned new medical school would not need to be downsized despite the government putting much less money into the project. University of Waikato Vice-Chancellor Professor Neil Quigley said the initial cost of the project was a high-level estimate of the maximum funding that might be needed. "It was always going to be the case that as we interrogated the costs in detail, it [the overall cost] would come down. "The costs that we've now identified are the true costs that reflect the facilities we actually need." He said the university expected its $150m contribution to be half from operating profits and half from donations. "We're a long way down the track with commitments to that level of philanthropic support already, and the university is in very good financial shape at the moment. "We're confident we can make the commitment." The university's focus would be training students who wanted to work in primary care and outside main centres, where the need was greatest, Quigley said. "We have a plan to ensure that students spend three of their four years in the medicine programme in clinical placement in rural and provincial areas." The university'sprogramme had the support of communities, doctors, and other healthcare professionals, he said. "Where we've got to today has taken a while, but probably was necessary to build the level of support needed." The university was finalising where students would go for their clinical placements with rural and regional communities. 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