A prisoner is challenging an Australian state’s ban on inmates eating Vegemite, claiming in a court suit that withholding the yeast-based spread breaches his human right to “enjoy his culture as an Australian.”
Andre McKechnie, 54, serving a life sentence for murder, took his battle for the salty, sticky, brown byproduct of brewing beer to the Supreme Court of Victoria, documents released to The Associated Press yesterday showed.
Most Australians revere Vegemite as an unfairly maligned culinary icon, and more than 80 percent of Australian households are estimated to have a jar in their pantries.
Photo: AP
However, inmates in all 12 prisons in Victoria are going without.
McKechnie is suing Victoria’s Department of Justice and Community Safety and the agency that manages the prisons, Corrections Victoria. The case is scheduled for trial next year.
Vegemite has been banned from Victorian prisons since 2006, with Corrections Victoria saying it “interferes with narcotic detection dogs.”
Inmates used to smear packages of illicit drugs with Vegemite in the hope that the odor would distract the dogs from the contraband.
Vegemite also contains yeast, which is banned from Victorian prisons, because of its “potential to be used in the production of alcohol,” the contraband list says.
McKechnie is seeking a court declaration that the defendants denied him his right under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act to “enjoy his culture as an Australian.”
The act guarantees “all persons with a particular cultural, religious, racial or linguistic background” the right to “enjoy their culture, to declare and practice their religion and to use their language.”
He also wants a declaration that the defendants breached the Corrections Act by “failing to provide food adequate to maintain” McKechnie’s “well-being.”
Manufactured in Australia since 1923 as an alternative to Britain’s Marmite, Vegemite was long marketed as a source of vitamin B for growing children.
The spread is beloved by a majority of Australians, but typically considered an acquired taste at best by those who were not raised on it.
The last US president to visit Australia, Barack Obama, once said: “It’s horrible.”
Australian band Men at Work aroused international curiosity about the spread when they mentioned a “Vegemite sandwich” in their 1980s hit Down Under.
The band’s lead singer, Colin Hay, once accused American critics of laying Vegemite on too thick, blaming a “more is more” US culture.
It is a favorite on breakfast toast and in cheese sandwiches, with most fans agreeing it is best applied sparingly.
The Department of Justice and Community Safety and Corrections Victoria yesterday declined to comment.
McKechnie is held at maximum-security Port Phillip Prison. He was 23 years old when he stabbed to death wealthy Gold Coast property developer Otto Kuhne in Queensland in 1994.
Victims of crime advocate and lawyer John Herron said it was a frivolous lawsuit that was offensive to victims’ families.
“As victims, we don’t have any rights. We have limited if any support. It’s always about the perpetrator, and this just reinforces that,” Herron said.
His daughter Courtney was beaten to death in a Melbourne park in 2019. Her killer was found not guilty of murder by reason of mental impairment.
“It’s not a case of Vegemite or Nutella or whatever it may be. It’s an extra perk that is rubbing our faces in the tragedy that we’ve suffered,” he added.
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