Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick says other businesses in the Super City aren't being held to the same standard as The White Lady, which is at risk of being shut down.
The iconic food truck has been operating on the streets of Auckland's CBD for the past 74 years. In April, Auckland Council reduced its annual licence to six weeks following complaints from a nearby business regarding rubbish and blocked footpaths.
And now The White Lady has 23 days until its licence expires.
Swarbrick told Newshub staff have been "bending over backwards" since its licence was reduced, which is "way above and beyond anything we see or even tend to expect from the likes of multinationals like Maccas, just around the corner".
"They [do a] circle of the food truck every half hour to pick up rubbish," she said.
"They are going above and beyond."
The Green Party MP said larger fast food chains like McDonald's aren't held to the same standard and made responsible for the rubbish their customers scatter across the streets.
"It's just yet another perfect example of how local street traders tend to have greater level of care and consideration of their community and social licence, and precisely why we need more of them, not less."
Chief burger flipper at The White Lady Max Washer made a public plea on Wednesday to "keep footpaths clear" and "put rubbish in bins".
"Help us out on this occasion so we can keep doing what we're doing."
Washer said with the clock ticking on their licence and Auckland Council monitoring their business there is no certainty for the future.
"It's quite hard to run a business with such a short-term sort of goal."
Swarbrick, who is working closely with Washer, the council and other stakeholders including the complainant, said The White Lady saga has highlighted issues with street trading in Auckland.
"When issues occur there is an ad hoc and complicated response."
And while street trading is allowed, Swarbrick said when things go wrong and a complaint is made there are "no support mechanisms that enable street trading to go ahead".
"These systems are man-made systems so, therefore, cannot be changed."
Swarbrick hopes The White Lady palaver will encourage change from Auckland Council to make street trading more accessible.
Swarbrick added she and Washer are working towards a resolution so the iconic food truck can operate for many generations to come.
In a statement, a council spokesperson said fast food restaurants that provide places for their customers to sit indoors and dispose of rubbish on site are different to a mobile operator whose patrons consume their food in the immediate vicinity, which is also a public place.
"Rubbish bins are provided up and down Queen Street and street cleaning, including litter pick up, in the wider vicinity is carried out by council contractors on a regular basis," the spokesperson said in response to questions from Newshub.
"General rubbish bins and street cleaning is a standard service in streets and town centres across the region. It is not provided, as you say, 'for fast food chains'."
In the same way restaurants don't empty the bins inside their premises into the public litter bins on the street, the spokesperson said The White Lady is required to use a commercial waste disposal service for the waste it generates.
"This is highlighted in the trading licence and this provision is made because the very nature of a mobile business means it must be self-contained," they said.
"For example, a coffee cart using a roadside layby would be required to provide a rubbish receptacle for its customers, and dispose of that rubbish, rather than allow customers to simply throw their litter on the ground."
The licence only requires the operator to manage litter immediately around the site, they added.
