Interest rates – 18 per cent and rising. Unemployment – 20 per cent and rising. Net foreign debt – $3trillion and rising.

Here are some imaginary medical numbers that, if real, would have Australians demanding answers from politicians and medical experts. 

Ebola cases – 300 per week and rising. Lung cancer cases – up 50 per cent and rising. Influenza deaths – 100 per day and rising.

Here is a real scientific number. The atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration has exceeded 400 parts per million and is predicted to continue to rise.

Scientific experts agree that urgent action is needed to reduce carbon dioxide levels to well below 400ppm to avoid serious damage to our environment. Key strategies to achieve this include replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy and restricting the clearing of native vegetation.

Will Australians demand answers from our politicians?

So, council’s director of strategy and business services reckons that general road repairs and maintenance projects will need to be “delayed” as a result of its decision to purchase and convert the Plumb Motors site in Bega into a public car park (BDN, 6/5).

The Bega Valley Shire Residents and Ratepayers Association (BVSRRA) is somewhat puzzled by this warning, given the recent claim made by Cr Sharon Tapscott that council could invest more heavily in infrastructure as a result of it having been declared “fit for the future” and therefore able “to access cheaper money”.

Of course, looking on the bright side, the state of the shire’s roads would suggest there’s not much being spent anyway and what is being expended appears to be all about keeping-up appearances, rather than genuinely improving the real standard of the shire’s infrastructure.

How sad that all of your young correspondents didn't agree with council's spending on art (BDN, 28/4) – $10,000 does not buy much road maintenance nor a lot of hospital bed and it won't house the homeless or even begin to cure any of our society's ills.

There will always be a need for more road infrastructure (and the constant maintenance of it) and people will always be needing medical attention.

No amount of money will stop sickness or death, but an artwork is permanent and can bring beauty to warm the hearts of many for a very long time and could even be beneficial to some people's health and wellbeing! 

Of course we need more art and we need to support those who enrich our lives with the art they produce. 

Perhaps one of our budding young journalists could take on the task of finding out just what fraction $10,000 is in the grand scheme of council's spending rather than just giving us their opinion.  

Good journalism is, I believe, an artform and we need to support good journalists who take an objective look at the subject and know their facts. Like visual or performing artists, our world would be much poorer without them.