Ardern tells Sydney audience politicians are worsening the trust crisis

Jacinda Ardern stood on the stage of the Sydney Opera House on Sunday and told Australian politicians that they were making public polarisation worse instead of better. The former New Zealand prime minister, who now lives in Sydney, said leaders have a duty to move beyond binary thinking and the language of violence. She urged the audience to rebuild trust by building financial security during a time of deep insecurity.

Ardern spoke during a forum alongside author Anna Funder. The event was promoted as a conversation about whether society can disagree without becoming divided. Ardern, 46, moved to Australia earlier this year. She bought a house on the northern beaches in September and announced last week that she will lecture and mentor at the University of Sydney.

The former leader described a long trend of global insecurity that led people to attack institutions like the World Trade Organization. She said politicians responded to that fear by offering simple explanations, such as Brexit, which paved the way for leaders like Donald Trump. Ardern noted that this approach of blaming others failed to fix the core issues.

She identified a specific problem in modern discourse. People do not just hold different opinions, she said. They hold views with such moral clarity that they cannot engage with the other side. This dynamic makes problem solving much more difficult. Ardern argued that social media has locked these views in place because opinions are recorded and held in time.

Ardern pointed to the Christchurch mosque shootings on March 15, 2019, as the moment she fully understood the weaponisation of online platforms. She described the attacker as a man radicalised on YouTube who broadcast violence on Facebook to incite other white supremacists. She said she was naive when she entered politics in 2008, believing social media was only a tool for direct communication with voters.

The talk came two weeks after an alleged attack on independent MP Helen Haines. Ardern did not name the incident directly but stressed that leaders must be aware of the tone they set. She said mistrust has been building for years and is now playing out in voter grievance and insularity. She argued that politicians have failed to address these spikes in mistrust.

Ardern concluded that the current situation is a crisis of leadership rather than just a crisis of trust. She said empathy is a missing ingredient in politics. Empathy brings humility and curiosity, she noted. She told the audience that if there were more humility in politics, the difference would be substantial.