A convicted murderer serving a life sentence in an Australian prison has lost his legal bid to have Vegemite reintroduced to his diet, after a Supreme Court judge ruled the ban on the spread was reasonable.
Andre McKechnie, 54, who is serving life at HM Barwon Prison in Victoria, argued that the prohibition, imposed in 2006, denied him the right to “enjoy his culture as an Australian”. The yeast-based paste has been a national symbol since its invention in 1923 as a response to World War I disrupting Marmite imports.
However, authorities in the state of Victoria said the paste could be used to disguise contraband substances and even brew alcohol behind bars. The court heard evidence from Corrections Victoria that the smell of Vegemite can distract sniffer dogs trying to detect drugs being brought into prison.
Court rejects cultural rights claim
In his lawsuit against Victoria's Department of Justice and Corrections, the agency that manages the state's prisons, McKechnie said the ban breached a law requiring prisons to provide food that allowed inmates to maintain their health and well-being. The judge said that had not been proven.
McKechnie, who represented himself, gave evidence that from his earliest memories Vegemite had been a food that he associated with family, his family home and Australia. He said: “I consider Vegemite and my consumption of Vegemite an integral part of the practice of my Australian culture. Without being able to consume Vegemite I feel deprived of being able to practice my Australian culture, sad and disconnected from my family and community.”
The court dismissed McKechnie's case, finding no infringement of his right to be provided with “food that is adequate to maintain the health and wellbeing of the prisoner”.
Judge rules ban is justified
Judge Claire Harris ruled that the prison's obligation to provide adequate food did not extend to supplying foods of cultural significance. Though Vegemite might be considered part of Australian culture, she found the ban was “reasonable and demonstrably justified”.
In a 50-page judgement, she added: “Vegemite is a food that may be regarded as part of an Australian culture in that it is a food strongly and traditionally associated with people of Australian background. Mr McKechnie's cultural rights are limited primarily by the fact that he has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment. The limitation of Mr McKechnie's right to acquire and consume Vegemite imposed by the prohibition and the decision is … a reasonable limitation.”
Justice Harris said the Corrections Act, which requires prisons to provide food to maintain the health of inmates, did “not extend to an obligation to provide to prisoners foods of cultural significance to enhance their wellbeing”. She concluded: “Mr McKechnie has failed to establish any of the grounds of judicial review.”
Background and wider bans
McKechnie, who is Jewish, is supplied with a lunch salad bowl and a hot kosher dinner. He was handed a life sentence for stabbing property developer Otto Kuhne to death in Queensland in 1994. He served part of his sentence in Queensland before being transferred to Victoria.
The product is also banned in jails in Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania. Vegemite, a much-loved breakfast spread for some, has acquired controversial accolades since it first hit shop shelves in Australia in 1923. The thick, brown spread was invented in Melbourne more than a century ago as an alternative to the British spread Marmite.
It sparked an international dispute in April last year when an Australian cafe owner in Canada was told to remove jars of the condiment from his shelves as it did not comply with local health regulations. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese intervened in the row, saying it was “rather odd” that Canada allowed the sale of Vegemite's “rubbish” rival product Marmite. The cafe owner was later allowed to continue selling the spread.
