The crowd proved to be tougher than those who appear on Q&A when the prime minister, Tony Abbott, wandered over to talk to a group of students in the grounds of Parliament House on Friday.

After a few pleasantries, he told the year 9 students from Newtown High School of the Performing Arts he would take three questions.

Three zingers came in quick succession, on the carbon tax, gay marriage and asylum seekers, with each question being greeted by the students with rousing cheers.

The prime minister gets more than he bargained for from high school students on Friday.

Thinking he’d answered the questions to their satisfaction, he gave them one more opportunity, and was asked: “Not saying I don’t trust you or anything, but I was just wondering … why is a man a minister for women? And why is a man in control of the rights for women?”

His response was to turn the moment into a political campaign: “If you think we need to have more women in decision making, you should join the Liberal party and work your way up,” he said.

All the while, the encounter was being filmed by one of the students, Aria McCarthy-Lochner, who described Abbott’s performance as one where he “avoids and waffles”.

The video was loaded up onto YouTube later that day and has since had more than 62,000 hits.