ONcycling 2025: ..

LINK [1] [2] THE MINISTER [1]

FRI NOV 21

From: Ray Norman <raynorman7250@gmail.com>

Date: Friday, 21 November 2025 at 12:48 pm
To: Becker, Nick <Nick.Becker@dpac.tas.gov.au>
Cc: Minister Vincent <kerry.vincent@parliament.tas.gov.au>, The Premier <premier@dpac.tas.gov.au>
Subject: Re: INFORMATION REQUEST [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

Good afternoon Nick,

Thank you for acknowledging our telephone conversation and confirming that my email to the Minister has been received and is in the process of being responded to in due course.

Apropos today’s conversation and its context I called after having been advised to do so by the EPA’s telephone reception person. Moreover, I called seeking to discover who the experts are in regard to:

• Materials Engineering and/or Industrial Chemistry expertise within the EPA; or

• The expertise the EPA relies upon when deeming that a material is hazardous, or a pollutant or is in some way repugnant.

I’m assuming that such expertise exists and is available to the EPA but there appears to be some reluctance in providing where it exists, who has it and in what context it is applied where and when.

I am looking forward to some kind of authoritative response by the close of business Nov 27. After that date I will assert that I sought the information without result – https://oncycling2025.blogspot.com/p/epa-tas.html.

Regards,

Ray Norman … Polemicist, Cultural Producer, Cultural Geographer, Researcher

The lifestyle design enterprise and research network

PH: 0488 011 376

eMAIL: raynorman7250@gmail.com

40 Delamere Cres Trevallyn TAS 7250

WEBsites: http://www.raynorman7250.blogspot.com

“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” Thomas Paine

“The standard you walk past is the standard you accept” David Morrison

Consultant

https://raynorman7250.blogspot.com/p/zingconsult.html

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I acknowledge the First Peoples – the Traditional Owners of the lands where we live and work, and recognise their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay respect to Elders – past, present and emerging – and acknowledge the important role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within the research zingHOUSEunlimited undertakes

From: Becker, Nick <Nick.Becker@dpac.tas.gov.au>
Date: Friday, 21 November 2025 at 11:12 am
To: raynorman7250@gmail.com <raynorman7250@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: INFORMATION REQUEST [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

UNOFFICIAL

Hi Ray,

Thanks for calling the Electorate Office earlier to discuss the EPA.

I will endeavour to chase up a response to your email.

Kind regards

Nick

Nick Becker
Electorate Officer

Office of the Hon Madeleine Ogilvie MP
Minister for Environment

Minister for Innovation, Science and the Digital Economy

Minister for Community and Multicultural Affairs

Minister for Arts and Heritage
Liberal Member for Clark

Phone: (03) 6165 3914 | e-mail Nick.Becker@dpac.tas.gov.au
119 Sandy Bay Road, Sandy Bay TAS 7005

Department of Premier & Cabinet
www.dpac.tas.gov.au

UNOFFICIAL

From: Ray Norman <raynorman7250@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, November 3, 2025 9:41 pm
To: Minister Ogilvie <madeleine.ogilvie@parliament.tas.gov.au>; Minister Vincent <kerry.vincent@parliament.tas.gov.au>; The Premier <premier@dpac.tas.gov.au>
Subject: INFORMATION REQUEST

Dear Ministers Ogilvie and Vincent and to whoever it may concern,

I recently received a request to investigate the recycling paradigm in the context of PLACEmaking and CULTURALlandscaping. In Australia/Tasmania. Unsurprisingly EPAs came into this investigation in various ways and while many people are aware of these operations it became increasing concerning that in general there is a rater poor understanding of their work and/or their ’authority’ in context.

For context, please see https://oncycling2025.blogspot.com/

What is NOT well understood, or widely understood, it seems is how EPAs came about and especially that:

The first Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established on December 2, 1970; and
It was established by President Richard Nixon; and
It was founded in response to growing public concern over pollution and ineffective state-level regulations.
It consolidated environmental functions from other federal agencies to create a single body with a mandate to set and enforce national pollution standards, enforcing key laws like the Clean Air Act (1970) and the Clean Water Act (1972). …. SEE … https://www.britannica.com/topic/Environmental-Protection-Agency … & …. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Protection_Authority_of_Western_Australia
The first Tasmanian Environment Protection Authority (EPA) was not created in a specific location but rather established as an independent statutory authority under the Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act 1994 (EMPCA), becoming operational in late 1994 or early 1995 as part of Tasmania's Resource Management and Planning System: and
The legislation: The key event was the passing of the Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act , came into effect in 1994 (EMPCA): and
This Act created the EPA as an independent statutory authority: and
It was formed as a core part of Tasmania's overall Resource Management and Planning System: and
While initially within other departments, the EPA became a standalone agency in December 2021: and consequently
Rather than geographical ‘placedness' the EPA’s origin in Tasmania is tied to a legislative framework and administrative restructuring within the State Government. In turn this has brought about misunderstandings and ambiguities when it comes to enforcement rationales and materiality engineering.

Materials Engineering: Professionals in ‘materials engineering’ provide civil and mechanical engineering with the tools necessary to systematically select appropriate materials for particular applications. Materials engineers builds upon the body of knowledge relevant to a material's fundamental properties and utility. Likewise, materials technology enables the appropriate materials for a given application to be applied and in context. In addition, the technologies enable the selection of materials based on their mechanical properties and their utility in a circumstantial context.

Against this background it has variously been asserted/expressed that:

Tasmania’s EPA enforces regulations and imposes penalties in a context where it’s ’authority’ is unchallengeable; and
Tasmania’s EPA does not itself employ a materials engineer or professional technologists with like qualifications; and
Tasmania’s EPA enforces regulations via bureaucratic processes in a context where there is no mechanism to challenge regulations that in a 21st C context lack veracity; and
Tasmania’s EPA is out of step with like agencies elsewhere in Australia; and
Tasmania’s EPA operates in status quo context and therefore affords LANDfill a long term future; and consequently
Tasmania’s EPA mitigates against Local Govt jurisdictions moving away ‘waste management’ in favour of‘ 'resource recovery’.

Clearly these assertions are challengeable. However, short off seeking your responses in your various ministerial roles it seems that there is no alternative to seeking your responses. That is, your responses in the context of your various ministerial roles to achieve better understandings than those held variously by community members. Many are attempting to navigate their way through what increasingly seems, euphemistically, to be an administrative fog.

Firstly, I would seek your, and appreciate your, acknowledgement of this request for information by the close business Wednesday Nov. 5.

Secondly, I would seek your, and appreciate an indication of a timeframe within which you and your advisors might be able to contextualise perceptions and/or misconceptions set out above.

In the context of climate change and 'sustainable resource recovery' and management arguably there is a need for paradigm shifts as new information becomes available in order that communities in the broadest context can reach for and hopefully realise more sustainable placemaking plus develop more sustainable cultural landscapes in which to live.

I look forward with interest to your timely responses.