A convicted murderer serving a life sentence in the Australian state of Victoria has lost a court bid to overturn a prison ban on Vegemite, the salty, yeast-based spread that has become something of a national symbol.
Andre McKechnie, 54, argued the ban — in place in Victoria since 2006 — denied him the right to "enjoy his culture as an Australian." McKechnie was handed a life sentence for stabbing a property developer to death in Queensland in the 1990s before being transferred to Victoria.
Why Vegemite is banned
Corrections Victoria told the court that the spread's strong smell can be used to disguise contraband or to help brew alcohol behind bars, and that it can also distract sniffer dogs trained to detect drugs entering prisons. On Monday, a Supreme Court judge rejected McKechnie's appeal, ruling that the prisoner's "cultural rights are limited primarily by the fact he has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment." McKechnie had also argued the ban breached rules requiring prisons to provide food that supports inmates' health and wellbeing, a claim the judge found unproven. Vegemite is also banned in prisons in Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.
A spread with a history of punching above its weight
Invented in Melbourne in 1923 as a local answer to the British spread Marmite, Vegemite has a habit of generating outsized controversy for a condiment. Last year it sparked a minor international incident when an Australian cafe owner in Canada was told to remove jars of it from his shelves for failing to meet local health regulations — prompting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to call it "rather odd" that Canada permitted the sale of Vegemite's British rival instead. The cafe owner was later allowed to keep selling it.