Published | 3 August 2026
There is something I believe Tasmanians do exceptionally well. We show up.
I've seen it in moments of celebration and, more often, in the moments when life doesn't go to plan. As a relatively new Tasmanian and as CEO of RACT, I've had the privilege of seeing it up close – raising a family here, working across our industries, brushing up against what life actually looks like in this state and what makes this place unique.
Distil all of that down and you get to a single point. Tasmania is a place where people turn up to help.
It's a quality that runs deeper than we give ourselves credit for. We look out for each other, in big ways we read about and in small ways most people never hear about. It's in the neighbour who notices, the stranger who stops, the local who steps in without fuss, the volunteer who keeps turning up, the person who goes above and beyond and then shrugs it off like it was nothing.
Strip away the frustrations, the concerns, the noise and yes, sometimes the politics, and that instinct is still there. It's part of who we are.
I think back to the Dolphin Sands bushfires, when in a matter of hours people watched homes they'd built over decades disappear. Family photographs, treasured possessions, irreplaceable memories. For many, the future suddenly became uncertain.
Neighbours opened their homes and spare caravans to people with nowhere else to go. Local businesses donated food, clothing and everyday essentials. Volunteer firefighters protected lives and properties. Others quietly organised fundraisers, cooked meals, checked on isolated residents and helped families begin the long road to recovery.
No one was waiting to be asked. No one was looking for recognition. They saw people who needed help and did what Tasmanians have always done.
The same thing happens on a smaller scale every week. When someone is diagnosed with a serious illness, Tasmanians fill freezers with meals, mow lawns, donate leave, drive people to appointments and sit beside families through the toughest days of their lives. It rarely makes the news. But what people remember afterwards isn't only the treatment they received. It's who was there.
We don't do these things because someone tells us to. We do them because that's who we are. What we don't do is talk about it, which is why RACT has decided to say it out loud.
As an observation, but also as a commitment to reflect this trait in the programs we back, the help we offer, the decisions we make, the way we show up when something goes wrong, and the way we advocate for Tasmania when it needs a stronger voice.
You might be sceptical about why an organisation would talk about something like this. That's fair enough. But RACT doesn't exist to serve distant interests or quick profits. We exist because Tasmanians created this organisation and Tasmanians keep shaping it. We're accountable to the people who rely on us, and when you're as embedded in a place as we are, you don't get to stand outside it and offer commentary. You have to participate. You have to live what you say.
We've already heard some of these stories, and they all have one thing in common. Someone chose to show up for someone else.
Over the next few months we want to hear more of them, from every corner of Tasmania. The ones that made you smile, the ones that made you stop and think, and the ones about the people quietly making the biggest difference who'd never dream of taking credit for it.
In the coming weeks you'll see us stepping forward more directly than we have before, to celebrate those stories and what they say about who we are. Not to claim credit, and not to tell anyone what to think. Simply to say that we see how much Tasmanians care for their community, and we think it's worth being proud of.
Let's do more of it. For each other.
Mark Mugnaioni, Group Chief Executive Officer, RACT
This Op Ed was first published in The Mercury on 3/08/2026