Based on reporting by NPR and Stuff

Wire reporting: (AP, via NPR)

A Victoria Supreme Court judge on Monday rejected a challenge by inmate Andre McKechnie, 55, who is serving a life sentence for murder, to a statewide ban on Vegemite in prisons, according to Associated Press reporting carried by NPR and Stuff (AP, via NPR)^1,2.

McKechnie, appearing by video from Barwon Prison west of Melbourne, had argued that being denied the yeast-extract spread violated his right under Victoria's Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act to enjoy Australian culture with others of similar background (AP, via NPR)^1,2.

Justice Claire Harris found that the refusal limited those cultural rights but that the limitation was justified by prison authorities' aims of keeping illicit drugs and alcohol out of the system, the AP accounts said^1,2. Officials testified in a July trial that Vegemite had been banned in Victoria's 12 prisons for about 20 years because it might interfere with narcotics-detection dogs and could be used to brew alcohol^1,2.

McKechnie, representing himself, argued that New South Wales prisons do not ban Vegemite, which he said showed less restrictive options existed, and that the product has no live yeast^1,2. The judge found he had not laid a proper foundation for claims that the spread does not affect sniffer dogs, the AP reports said^1,2. He also tied the ban to thiamine deficiency and kosher dietary limits; the judge treated imprisonment itself, not the spread, as the main source of disconnection from family and community, according to the same wire^1,2.

Sources

1. (AP, via NPR)Australian judge rejects prisoner's human rights challenge to Vegemite banAlso (AP, via Stuff)9:25 AM

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