Tony Abbott, the Australian opposition leader, proved that he was not lying when he said he's "no Bill Gates." At a "town hall" session at Rooty Hill RSL, the man who is positioning himself to become Australia's next prime minister seemed to have no idea that there is a debate about creating an R18+ rating for video games. In addition, Abbott also told the audience "for me broadband basically is about being able to send an email, receive an email." The statements have opened Abbott to online ridicule.

Abbott, while likening broadband Internet to a car, was countered by a witty retort from one audience member to much laughter. The exchange was left out of the official transcript handed out by the Liberal Party.

Abbott defended his limited knowledge of broadband by saying that "just because you don't know exactly how every last detail of the motor car works doesn't mean that you can't drive it effectively".

He once again used the car analogy at Rooty Hill RSL. When asked by an audience member how he can guarantee that his mishmash of technologies, which includes wireless, would be better than Labor Party's plan, he said, "I might want a really fantastic car, but I've got to buy the car that I can afford, not necessarily the car that in a perfect world I would like."

In a line deleted from the official transcript sent out by Abbott's spokesman, the audience member asked, "If your car is going to break down anyway, why not just spend the money [on a better solution]?"

To this, Abbott stated: "I know wireless, at the moment, is not as good as fibre optic cable ... but the wireless is getting so much better, I mean, I've upgraded my wireless modem a few times in the last couple of years and it's amazing how much quicker it is now than it was."

Abbott's opposition to the government's broadband plans had been met with ridcule on Twitter, the microblogging Web site.

Bonne Eggleston wrote, "If Tony Abbott was PM 100 years ago we would have never built a telephone service across the country."

Abbott, who says that he's not a "tech head," has struggled to explain the details of his broadband plan. He was attacked for promising to block the government's $43 billion National Broadband Network (NBN) plan without any explanation as to why a $6 billion plan, which he devised, was better for the country's future.

Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister, refused to be drawn into a fight, saying she did not intend to criticise Abbott for his lack of technical knowledge about broadband.

"We need to build the National Broadband Network for the future. I will build it. He will not. That's the problem. Not whether he knows some technical details about it," she said.

NBN Co. announced that the NBN would have a speed of up to one gigabit per second. The figure is 10 times the speed that was first announced. It is also significantly faster than the minimum speed of 12 megabits per second promised by the Coalition.

Abbott was asked whether he had any policies for an R18+ rating for video games. The rating currently does not exist and causes games that don't reach the MA15+ standard to be banned in the country.

"I didn't know there was a problem here ... what sort of stuff is available?" Abbott asked.

After an explaination about the disparity between the classification for films and video games, Abbott replied, "Well look, if what happens with video games is not roughly analogous to what happens in other areas, that seems silly and there ought to be much the same kind of information available to consumers in respect of video games as there are in respect of other kinds of entertainment."

"So, instinctively, I'm with you and it's something that I'd be happy to look at were we in government."

Ron Curry, chief executive of the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association, said that he was happy about Abbott's comments but "you've got to look at that in context of (a) he didn't understand the issue and (b) we're on the campaign trail - and ultimately it's still got to through Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG)."