Mr Abbott ran to the rally from his press conference where he unveiled the Opposition's new climate change policy and was greeted with loud cheers and clapping as he promised to always respect farmers.

With Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, and Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, both declining invitations to attend today's rally, Mr Abbott said he believed it was the first duty of Government "to respond to its citizens".

"And it wouldn't matter what the Prime Minister thought, or what the Minister for Agriculture thought about the issues you are raising, they owe it to you to give you a fair hearing," Mr Abbott said.

"It is a sad day in this country when a couple of thousand farmers and country people can make the effort to come to Canberra and not get a fair hearing from a single government minister.

"Shame on the Rudd Government."

Mr Abbott said while he would not always agree with what farmers were calling for, he would always respect them "because an Australia without a farming community would not be Australia".

"I want to say I think a couple of people have gone a little bit too far and I do not support self harm or threats of self harm," Mr Abbott said of the 52-day hunger strike by Peter Spencer.

"But I do support ending injustice and I think it is only right and proper that the people of Australia should campaign to end injustice where they see it and they should be heard.

"As the Federal Opposition leader I can't fix all the terrible things that State Governments of different political persuasions have done…

"…but I can tell you this – that as long as there is breath in my body I will do my damndest to ensure that no political party that I am associated with takes away people's rights without compensation.

"I am so pleased to see so many of you here. I think it is very important that the decent ordinary people of our country claim it back."

* Click here for a full list of all the stories, photos, and multimedia reports from Tuesday's protest.