Australian Town not Happy about New McDonald’s

The World
McDonald's

The residents of the Australian town of Tecoma are fighting against a proposed McDonald's restaurant opening in their community.

McDonald's is seeking an injunction to keep the protesters off the restaurant building site.

The group, known as Burger Off, took a petition of 95,000 signatures to McDonald's international headquarters today in Chicago.

Garry Muratore is a representative for Burger Off.

He spoke to anchor Aaron Schachter about his group's efforts to keep the restaurant from opening in his town.

Statement from McDonald's:

We hear the concerns of the group and respect their right to peacefully express their views. McDonald's Australia has followed due process every step of the way to build a family restaurant on a highway that already houses a number of food and service outlets. The only legal action has been to protect those with opposing views from putting themselves and others in danger through illegal and dangerous actions.

The restaurant will be locally owned and operated by a licensee who is a member of the broader community, who has the best interest of his neighbors in mind. In fact, he already owns McDonald's restaurants in neighboring communities.

This new restaurant will bring 100 jobs to this community and will represent the spirit of small business ownership.

Will you support The World today?

The story you just read is available for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.

Make a gift today, and you’ll get us one step closer to our goal of raising $25,000 by June 14. We need your help now more than ever!