McDonald’s push into regional Australian areas battling obesity, diabetes alarms health experts

Health experts warned that while McDonald’s expansion into regional Australia in the next two years would bode well for local economies, it would not be good for their population’s health.

About a third of the 100 McDonald’s Australia restaurants set to open in the next two years will be in regional and remote areas.

Cameron Newlands, a senior director of the restaurant group, said population growth and government and private investment in regional areas were driving where they would open.

Newlands said the average McDonald’s restaurant fills about 120 full-time, part-time, and casual jobs across different roles from kitchen, service, and management roles in each town, which is substantial in terms of employment opportunity.

But the move is controversial in towns battling obesity and related diseases.

Megan Belot, the president of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia, said that while it’s nice to think that McDonald’s would provide more jobs and opportunities for our younger people, they don’t need fast food in our smaller rural communities who already have an increased risk of obesity.

Belot said the focus for regional communities should be on better access to more fresh food and vegetables and meat.

Dr. Kim Houghton, the chief economist at the Regional Australia Institute, said McDonald’s may be increasingly drawn to the regions as they weren’t as affected by those capital city lockdowns in 2020 due to Covid and bounced back much faster than the city.

Erica Spry, an Aboriginal research officer for the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, said she was very concerned about the effect of fast-food restaurants on the indigenous population, who are seeing increasing rates of diabetes across multiple generations.

Research by Spry and Julia Marley, professor of health research at the rural clinical school of the University of Western Australia, shows Indigenous populations in rural and remote populations can have three times the average rate of diabetes as the general population.