Jacinda Ardern delivers final address to New Zealand Parliament | World News

Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern quit parliament on Wednesday, ending a career marked by empathetic leadership in times of crisis, even as she faced escalating abuse online.

Ardern shocked New Zealand earlier this year by announcing her resignation as prime minister and her retirement from politics, saying she had “run out of money in the tank”.

The 42-year-old, once the world’s youngest female leader, said in her final speech to parliament that she never expected to hold the country’s top job.

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She quipped in her farewell speech: “It’s a mixture of the duty of driving a moving freight train … and being hit by a train.”

“It’s probably because of my inner reluctance to lead, matched only by a tremendous sense of responsibility.”

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

“These stories and stages are still etched in my mind and will likely be forever. It is the responsibility and the privilege of the role of prime minister.”

Ardern devoted a significant portion of her speech to climate change, urging the country’s politicians to unite.

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

“So one of the few things I would ask this house to do as I leave is, please, take the politics out of climate change.”

She will now work to tackle online extremism as part of the Christchurch Appeal Project, which she set up when she was prime minister in the wake of the mosque attacks.