Backbencher

Listening to the news, I heard that New Zealand had some torrential rains recently and many mudslides had occurred recently. This seems to fit what we had talked about in class since the soil in New Zealand is relatively new and is still trying to stabilize itself. Anyways, the mudslides which have occurred caused damage to many homes and property causing the insurance companies to go out an conduct inspections.
Another topic covered is that New Zealand is going to limit the amount of medical scans to shorten the wait time for people. People will now have to meet some requirements, none of which were based on age or race, before they would be allowed to go in and get a medical scan. On the flipside of this note, people will get shorter wait times, but the doctors will be able to talk with their patients longer than previously.
A soldier shot himself accidentally earlier this week. The New Zealand officials who are investigating the shooting didn’t or couldn’t tell the reporters much of anything. At first, they believed that the soldier may have shot himself while cleaning his weapon. Investigation proved that that wasn’t the case however.
The news that I listened too spent quite a bit of time covering foreign affairs actually. These are some of the very few topics that I heard that actually dealt with New Zealand directly. It almost sounded like I was watching CNN back home here. I’m guessing that since New Zealand is a small country and depends on outside markets quite a bit, they have to take a greater interest in what is happening elsewhere in the world.