Jacinda Ardern in Sydney Opera House talk advises politicians to ‘rebuild trust by building financial security’

Former New Zealand prime minister has moved to Australia and is lecturing at University of Sydney – and from stage of city’s famous landmark

Jacinda Ardern, who now calls Sydney home, has delivered a message to Australian politicians from the stage of the city’s Opera House.

Politicians, the former New Zealand prime minister turned academic told the audience on Sunday, were exacerbating the problem of polarisation within society and needed to be better.

“We have a responsibility not to engage in binary thinking, not to engage in the language of violence, [but] to rebuild trust by building financial security in a time of deep insecurity,” Ardern said during a forum with the author Anna Funder.