Entitled, Delivering on our Promises, it touched on the fact that the government would continue to do "good work" and build a "strong and prosperous economy". And pointed out that no "illegal" boats had arrived since mid-December.

Yet, after it was posted on Sunday, both the video and Mr Abbott's YouTube channel were blocked. The standard error message that appeared in its place was that the clip had "been removed" as a "violation of YouTube's policy against spam, scams and commercially deceptive content".

The clip stayed blocked for about eight hours until it was re-posted, without issue on Monday morning, where it currently has more than 2000 views. A spokesman for Mr Abbott said he did not know why the video had been removed, but according to the video sharing giant, the blocking was the result of simple human error.

"Occasionally, a video flagged by users is mistakenly taken down. When this is brought to our attention, we quickly review the content and take appropriate action, including restoring videos or channels that had been removed," a YouTube spokeswoman said.

Later on Monday, the Prime Minister's office said YouTube had apologised for the error.

It is understood that at least one user reported Mr Abbott's video as spam on Sunday night.

Once a clip is flagged as spam, it is automatically reviewed by YouTube. And cases of spam are taken seriously - and often blocked - because of their potential to travel far and wide.

In Mr Abbott's case, it is understood that the review team was based overseas and did not immediately realise that a video message from the Australian Prime Minister to the Australian people about the government's "good work" was not spam.

An easy mistake, when you think about it.

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