Land speculation: Chamber of Farmers for law reform – salzburg.ORF.at
politics
The Salzburg SPÖ criticizes that farmers’ representatives in the districts are doing too little against the sale of agricultural land to large companies and speculators. Small farmers will find it more difficult to buy land, but hardly any investors. According to the Chamber of Agriculture, the laws would have to be changed and made more specific.
The real estate commissions measure with unequal standards – although each commission also includes representatives of the respective district chamber of farmers. Karin Dollinger, spokeswoman for agriculture for the SPÖ in the Salzburg state parliament, criticizes this.
Big initial, little bullied?
The politician refers to a farmer from Bramberg (Pinzgau) who has been refused the purchase of one hectare of land for her horse breeding for years. The sale of a total of hundreds of hectares of alpine and agricultural land in Oberpinzgau to a Viennese foundation, on the other hand, has been approved, says Dollinger: “I don’t know how you can combine that with advocacy for farmers. If again real farmers cannot acquire these areas in small dimensions. And large areas go to lawyers, automobile companies, construction moguls or doctors.”
Chamber president wants more precise laws
He doesn’t know this example in detail, says President Rupert Quehenberger of the Salzburg Chamber of Agriculture. The Court of Auditors’ report on land traffic in Pinzgau is also not yet available to him. However, for Quehenberger, the criticism of such sales is confirmation that urgent changes are needed in the law: “That would make us more accurate. There are problems because things are not well defined in the law. Sharpening this is an urgent demand from agriculture.”
Above all, there needs to be a more precise definition of who is a farmer and who is not – for example via current insurance periods in the farmer’s social security system, says the President of the Chamber of Agriculture. In addition, a land sale would also have to be linked to a joint management concept for a certain period of time.
Quehenberger defends commissions
The work of the basic traffic commissions is already being reviewed, adds Quehenberger – and that is when decisions after objections end up before the state administrative court. Here the work of the basic traffic commissions is confirmed in the vast majority of cases, according to the official.
Representatives of the respective district administration, the district chamber of farmers and the respective municipality (usually the local farmer chairman) sit in these district committees. In the “big” commission there are also representatives from the Chamber of Labour, the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Agricultural Labourers.