WHY is Victorian Premier John Brumby digging his heels in on rolling over drought assistance to the state's farmers?

All we're hearing is some vague muttering from Treasury Place about waiting until the end of the month, "because that's what we've done in the past".

Yet the experience of the past two years is exactly why the Government needs to act now and announce the 2007-08 drought assistance programs will continue.

Surely Mr Brumby understands years of drought have already drained farmers' financial and emotional reserves.

Our rural communities need an expression of hope from their political leaders. Cynicism aside, farmers need to know governments care.

Irrigators also need to know the Federal Government will support them on the back of another low water allocation year.

We're facing the greatest rural crisis in the nation's history, with $5 billion of permanent plantings at risk in the Murray Darling Basin.

The opportunity now exists to re-introduce the $20,000 irrigation management grants, funded by the federal and state governments.

The package would give dairy irrigators the security to sell more water knowing they could afford to replace it with more purchased fodder and grain. Irrigators with permanent plantings would feel more confident about entering the water market, given other farm costs are covered.

The first round of $20,000 grants showed the money cycled through drought-stricken communities delivered real benefits (laser grading, installation of more efficient irrigation systems, etc).

Victorian, southern NSW and South Australian irrigators are all in the same boat on this. They need help.

The tragedy is that Federal Water Minister Penny Wong seems obsessed with tying every cent the Rudd Government spends on irrigators to delivering water for the environment.

What we need from the Federal Government is a basin-wide strategy that ensures the survival of rural communities, not one that just exploits the unfolding tragedy.