Rudd said he wouldn't talk to Peter while he was on his hunger strike protest so let's see how long he takes now he is down. The pressure now really needs to be applied by everyone and this Feb 5 rally in Canberra needs to be attended by thousands of country and city people alike to show that Australians need their rights returned.

Unfortunately this cause has been taken over by a number of different right wing loony groups seeking to promote their own agenda. Beware!!!

Every Australian is behind you now, continue the fight with more of us walking behind you, time to expose the NWO AGENDA21 and the Eco-Fascism and Tyranny of the United Nations, Greenpeace and Kevin Rudd's Fabian Socialist cronies like Malcolm Turnbull who are all lined up to make money off the new global government and global economy of carbon trading. You will have to pay for breathing and your cows for farting. No more international travel, no more land ownership. I urge every Australian to educated themselves about AGENDA21 and LULUCF documents, and the RIO Summit of 1992 . Look into Maurice Strong and THE CLUB OF ROME.

Bring your truck, tractor or any other farm vehicle to the Canberra rally. The more the better. The French farmers have no problem in blockading the streets of Paris for far less than this issue. The more farm tractors on the roads of Canberra we can get to really frustrate the traffic, the more impact you will make.

Am I getting something wrong here? There have been many examples around Australia where land clearing has led to major salt problems amongst others and it seems to me to be good reason to halt the amount of land clearing that occurs. Is this not the case?

I'll be there

And don't forget to put pressure on the opposition leader, Tony Abbott who is supporting overturning Wild Rivers Legislation in Qld because it denies aboriginal people the right to earn a living from the land in Cape York. This impact on landowners regardless of race, affected by the land clearing laws is just the same. After all, the action to halt land clearing was first initiated during Howard's rule.

Rudd didn't say he'd speak with him when he's down (that I can recall). Only that he wouldn't feel pressured to speak with him because of his actions. Although I believe non-compensation is not conscionable what many people seem to forget is that most farmers with debt (including Mr Spencer I'd presume), and some without, receive material interest rate subsidies from the government. The thing is they take these grants for granted and think it is their right to get money for anything. The impact of these grants is it effectively inflates their income and in fact makes land worth more than it would be if priced purely on its own productive capacity over the seasonal trend. I doubt Mr Spencer has even considered this side of things.

JayDin What interest rate subsidy? Only if you are in an EC area. My property is not in an EC area and I have never received a single grant, payout, subsidy or $. Don't assume that you can pigeon hole all farmers into one group. This problem that Peter Spencer is trying to address is not that we were stopped from clearing our land, but rather that we are not been paid for the the land use that has been taken away. This removes our income earning ability from our asset that we have bought. On my property, I lost use of land under the Qld Vegetation MisManagement Act and from my point of view, if this was deemed necessary for the greater public good and to allow Australia to meets it's global environmental commitments that I should lose use of some of my land, then OK - SO LONG AS I GET PAID FOR IT. As it sits now, I have lost use of the land, didn't get paid for and am expected to keep maintaining and paying rates on it. Fair - I THINK NOT.

fridgimus - This is not really about land clearing but is really about compensation and the unjust treatment of farmers who can no longer farm land which they paid for. Betcha if they took over the front yard of a city block of land there would be compensation! I can hear the howls now.