At 11am Julia Gillard took part in a Google+ hangout, an experiment in online democracy and a first for an Australian prime minister.

The Prime Minister responded to more than a dozen questions in the one hour digital interview, a collaboration between Fairfax Media, OurSay and Deakin University.

A Google spokeswoman said there were 21,000 live views of the this morning's virtual interview.

One of the more challenging questions came from Shane Bazzi, a 25-year-old Sydneysider who topped the poll on the OurSay.org website with more than 12,700 votes.

He asked the Prime Minister to explain her opposition to gay marriage given she is as an atheist and leader of a "self-described socially progressive party".

"I don't think that heterosexual relationships are more valued than same-sex relationships," the Prime Minister replied.

"I think people who are in loving, commited relationships, all of those relationships should be valued. I think my relationship should be valued and I'm not married."

She said her view about gay marriage was based on its cultural status and differed from Mr Bazzi's.

"These are very individual personal perspectives on the world...This should be a conscience vote in Labor. We will have a vote on changing the marriage act by the end of the year," she said.

Ehon Chan, who lost a friend to suicide, grilled the PM about suicide prevention, saying only 13 per cent of men with mental health problems accessed help.

"It's in part about government but it's about all of us and about society and how we respond to the needs of each other," Ms Gillard said. "One of the things we have to do, and we have been keen to resource, is programs that can help men speak to men rather than white coated health professionals running."

On a lighter note, Ms Gillard mused on what made her happy.

"I'm happy when I feel like I am achieving things," she said.

"We can point to achievements in schools and health and jobs and many areas."

Ms Gillard said in her personal life it was about family and friends.

"Getting to spend some time with Tim, with mates and just doing all the things people usually do when they are trying to wind down a bit," she said.

Former teacher Ricky Campbell-Allen asked the Prime Minister about when she would implement recommendations made in the Gonski review.

"We haven't just been sitting around and waiting. We have been working on all of the technical stuff that the review called on us to do and will be announcing our response to the Gonski review will before the end of this year," she said. "We want to keep driving change in Australian education."

David Jamison, the national president of the Defence Force Welfare Association, asked a question demanding a higher rate of indexation for veterans pensions - contrasting their situation with the indexation rate on the old age pension.

South Australian David Nicholls, 67, who is president of the Atheist Foundation of Australia, asked the Prime Minister about federal funding of school chaplains, saying it had no place in a secular democracy.

But Ms Gillard told Mr Nicholls that feedback about the chaplains program had been positive and they played a valuable role in Australian schools.

"The purpose isn't for people to go around on an evangelical crusade about their religion but it is for them to use the kind of skills that come from being someone in a caring profession for a kid," she said.

"As long as schools are giving me positive feedback then this is a program to be valued."

Other people from the OurSay website and the Twitter hashtag #pmhangout also joined the conversation.

But one of the downsides for the PM participating in a virtual chatroom was some of crude and offensive remarks posted on the YouTube site.

Internet trolls dominated what was meant to be an interactive discussion forum, however Fairfax readers did add to the debate through comments on its mastheads' homepages.

By the close of voting at 5pm on Thursday, more than 109,000 votes had been cast for more than 2000 questions lodged with OurSay.