Angry farmers rally outside Australian parliament

250 angry farmers, wearing broad-brimmed hats and cracking kangaroo-hide whips, have rallied outside Australia's Parliament House demanding compensation for Australian climate change policy.

Their protest drew attention to the plight of sheep farmer Peter Spencer, who is staging a hunger strike because he is not allowed to clear the vegetation from his farm. State laws introduced in Australia in 1995 restrict the amount of land that farmers can clear of vegetation which absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Peter Spencer and other farmers argue that farmers deserve federal compensation because the restrictions make their land less productive. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the dispute should be decided by the courts.

In this undated photo provided by Kahn Spencer, Australian farmer  Peter Spencer perches on a makeshift platform 6 meters (20 feet) up  a steel wind monitoring mast on his farm at Shannon's Flat, near  Canberra, Australia. A protest by 250 farmers and their supporters  in Canberra, Monday, Jan. 4, 2010, drew public attention to the plight  of sheep farmer Spencer who they say has been on a hunger strike for  42 days because he is not allowed to clear vegetation from his farm. (AP Photo/Kahn Spencer)