FORMER NEW ZEALAND PM JACINDA ARDERN DELIVERS FINAL SPEECH TO NZ PARLIAMENT

Wed 05 Apr 2023:

Jacinda Ardern, the former leader of New Zealand, announced her resignation from the legislature on Wednesday, capping a career marked by compassionate leadership during difficult times despite receiving increasing online abuse.

Earlier this year, Ardern shocked New Zealand by announcing her resignation as prime minister and exit from politics, claiming she no longer had “enough in the tank.”

In her final speech to parliament, the 42-year-old, who was once the youngest woman leader in the world, stated that she had never anticipated taking the position as leader of the country.

“It was a cross between a sense of duty to steer a moving freight train… and being hit by one,” she quipped during her valedictory address.

“And that’s probably because my internal reluctance to lead was matched only by a huge sense of responsibility.”

Ardern steered New Zealand through natural disasters, the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2019 Christchurch mosque massacre — in which a white supremacist gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers.

“These stories and phases remain etched in my mind and likely will forever. That is the responsibility and privilege of the role of prime minister.”

Ardern dedicated a significant section of her speech to climate change, urging the country’s politicians to band together.

“Climate change is a crisis. It is upon us,” she said.

“And so one of the very few things I will ask of this house on my departure is that you please take the politics out of climate change.”

She will now focus on combating online extremism as part of the Christchurch Call project, which she established as prime minister in the aftermath of the mosque attack.

Ardern will also join the board of trustees of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, which seeks solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.

She became a lightning rod for online abuse as her premiership wore on, and was regularly targeted in social media posts filled with violent and sexist language.

According to a University of Auckland study, Ardern received 50 times more online abuse than any other high-profile figure in New Zealand.

Earlier this year, a man from New Zealand was sentenced to more than a year in prison for threatening to kill her.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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