Signatories have ‘super-sized’ a petition opposing a McDonald’s in Wānaka.

At the time of writing, almost 1,600 people have confirmed, via the petition, that they are not lovin’ news of the fast food giant’s application to set up a restaurant and drive-through operation on the town’s outskirts. 

Wānaka resident Sarah Morrison created the petition on Wednesday (November 22), hours after McDonald’s Restaurants NZ confirmed to the Wānaka App its plans for a 24/7 Wānaka operation.

Rob Keith, one of the people who has signed it, cited the rubbish and impact on local eateries among the reasons he hoped the McDonald's would not go ahead.

“I just think ‘let’s support local’,” he said. “It’s a nice little town and let’s try to keep it that way.”

Sarah, who started the petition after seeing the reaction to the news on social media, said McDonald’s went against “all of our core community values”.

“Wānaka tends to pride itself on being a health and wellness-centred place… Having fast food restaurants in town directly contradicts that,” she told the Wānaka App.

The 22-year-old said it was that “community values” factor, alongside the environmental impact and the effect on local food businesses, were the main reasons she was against McDonald's coming to Wānaka - reasons echoed by many petition signers. 

Sarah cited Keep New Zealand Beautiful’s 2023 New Zealand Litter audit, which found that in the takeaway packaging category, McDonald’s accounted for 56.5 percent of all waste.

While she understood people could decide for themselves if they wanted to eat McDonald's or not, Sarah said she wanted to see Wānaka “take care of ourselves as a collective….and say ‘we don’t want that option’.”

She planned to provide information and templates to petition signers when the time came for public submissions on McDonald’s’ resource consent application.

While the petition shows that many people are opposed to a local McDonald’s, others think they are in a McFlurry over the inevitable.

Wānaka resident Sammy Rae said McDonald’s would provide great work opportunities for teenagers in town, as well as the addition of “easy, affordable takeout for young families on a tight budget”.

A local mother who asked not to be named, said other parents she had spoken with at her child’s daycare were excited about the possibility of being able to treat their kids to an occasional takeaway at an affordable price.

Another put it simply: “If you don’t want to eat there, you absolutely don’t have to.”

The Wānaka App asked Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) for a response to the petition, which is directed at the council ‘with the goal of preventing resource consent for a Wanaka McDonald’s’.

QLDC media and channels advisor Sam White said McDonald’s had volunteered that the resource consent application be publicly notified, which allows “anyone to make a submission on the application at the relevant stage in the process.”

All applicants have to meet the information requirements of the Resource Management Act for lodging an application, he said.

“...it isn’t appropriate for Council, as the Consent Authority, to comment on the merits or otherwise of specific applications outside of this process.”

Aspiring Law director Janice Hughes said a petition does not have any impact on a resource consent application, but it “might encourage people to put in a submission”.

Find the petition here.

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