Spotlight on critical thinking in the age of fake news - for Global Ethics Day 2025

Spotlight critical thinking in the age of misinformation & fake news - for Global Ethics Day 2025, with our adult ethics class (plus a current high school student of ethics!)

Please join us for a webinar on Global Ethics Day to observe a special Primary Ethics class. The webinar will be hosted by journalist and writer Sarah MacDonald. Primary Ethics Philosopher-in-residence and curriculum author Kelby Mason will facilitate an ethics lesson on misinformation and fake news - an edited version of a lesson that is currently taught in secondary schools by Primary Ethics volunteer teachers - a Q&A will follow the ethics lesson.

Our special guest students will include Allegra Spender MP (Member for Wentworth), Ed Coper (strategic communications specialist and author of Facts and Other Lies), Primary Ethics volunteer teachers Alexa Stuart (Bob Brown Young Environmentalist of the Year 2024), Winnie Tang (aeronautical engineer), Jean-Paul Leung (ethics team coordinator) and Kevin Farmer (corporate social responsibility consultant) and current Year 7 ethics student Abby Webb.

After the lesson, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions.

Please join us on Wednesday 15 October 2025 from 6-7pm - everyone welcome.

More on our speakers and the event
Our event host: Sarah Macdonald

Sarah is a broadcaster, writer and communicator. She is best known as the former presenter for the Mornings program on ABC Radio Sydney. Sarah was Triple J’s political reporter before presenting ABC’s Morning Show across the nation in the late 90s. She returned to radio in 2017 to build the Weekend Nightlife Show on ABC Radio and presented the beloved Evening Show around NSW and the ACT from 2020-2023. Sarah co-presents the Full Catastrophe, a storytelling event, podcast and book and her other books include ‘So You’re Having a Teenager. She now writes regularly for the SMH. 

About our ethics lesson teacher

Kelby Mason: Kelby has been a trainer for Primary Ethics since 2011 and an ethics teacher since 2012. He has a University Medal in philosophy and a Master of Public Health from the University of Sydney and did his graduate work in philosophy at Rutgers (NJ, USA) where he was a member of the Moral Psychology Research Group and a fellow at the Center for Cultural Analysis. Kelby wrote the Primary Ethics high school ethics curriculum and provides philosophical advice, trains and provides classroom support for new teachers. 

About our students

Abby Webb

Abby Webb is a Year 7 student at Lindfield Learning Village, a K-12 public school in Sydney, and has been engaged in ethics lessons since she was in kindergarten.

Alexa Stuart

Alexa Stuart was a student of ethics in primary school and began as a volunteer teacher at age18, almost four years ago. Alexa is a climate activist with Rising Tide and was named the Bob Brown Foundation Young Environmentalist of the Year 2024.

Allegra Spender MP

Allegra Spender is the independent Federal Member of Parliament for Wentworth. With a background in economics from Cambridge and advanced studies at Harvard and Dartmouth, she has worked as a business analyst at McKinsey, a policy analyst at the UK Treasury and Managing Director of Carla Zampatti Pty Ltd. Allegra is committed to social impact, having chaired the Sydney Renewable Power Company and led the Australian Business and Community Network.

Ed Coper

Ed Coper is a leading political communications expert. He was on the front lines when the internet collided with democracy. Ed has advised campaigns on every continent except Antarctica and high-profile change-makers from Malala to Richard Branson. He has been behind the scenes of many of the last decade’s most prominent social movements and founded the New York-based Center for Impact Communications. Ed is the author of Facts and Other Lies: Welcome to the Disinformation Age. 

Jean-Paul Leung

Jean-Paul is a dad of two teenagers. He first became involved in ethics when his eldest started kindergarten and has been a volunteer ethics coordinator ever since. He began teaching ethics when his younger son entered public school. Since retiring from the public service 12 years ago, Jean-Paul has focused on learning conscious parenting and building healthy community — work that’s grounded in shared understanding rather than public acclaim.

Kevin Farmer

Kevin Farmer AMICDA has extensive experience in the arts, corporate engagement and education sectors. Kevin has been serving as Primary Ethics volunteer teacher since May 2017. Kevin was a Board Director at Darlinghurst Theatre Company for nine years, stepping in as Executive Director in 2024 and overseeing its closure after 32 years of operation. Additional roles include Immediate Past Chair and Leadership Council Member at Documentary Australia Foundation, as well as key positions at Project Consulting, NIDA, Goldman Sachs Australia, Telstra, Air New Zealand and Ansett Australia, with a strong background in corporate responsibility, sponsorship management and the performing arts.

Winnie Tang

Winnie Tang is a systems engineer working at Thales, with a degree in Aerospace Engineering (Hons) and Physics from UNSW. Winnie is a Primary Ethics volunteer teacher who has recently developed a proposal for a space ethics curriculum to be integrated into primary school science.

About Primary Ethics

·       Primary Ethics is the sole provider of ethics education in NSW public schools. We leverage a network of over 2000 volunteer teachers who deliver 70,000+ lessons a year across almost 500 primary schools in NSW.

·       Our volunteers know they are making an important difference to the way their students think, reason and discuss and ultimately, making a difference to the communities these young people will grow into.  

·      Our world is increasingly polarised and rapidly changing. The ability to think critically about what we’re told in the ‘old’ media and on social media is crucial as today’s children grow up into a pressurised world full of challenges that have to be met at breakneck pace.          

Global Ethics Day

Global Ethics Day is an annual moment for individuals and organisations to explore their values and the principles that shape ethical decision-making.

This global celebration of the importance of ethical tools highlights ethics as a process for finding solutions in the collaborative and respectful manner that’s often missing in today’s world. 

Ethics is not about getting everyone to agree on a single set of values. It’s about how we learn to live together, respect our differences and together face the global challenges of today and tomorrow.