Convicted murderer sues to be able to eat Vegemite

Convicted murderer sues to be able to eat Vegemite

Vegemite, the Australian yeast-based spread that polarizes opinion just as Marmite does in the UK, is at the centre of a bizarre, and some might say, tasteless, lawsuit brought by an inmate of a prison in the state of Victoria. The prisoner, Andre McKechnie, 54, serving a life sentence for murder, is suing Victoria’s Department of Justice and Community Safety and the agency that manages the prisons, Corrections Victoria, because the salty, sticky, brown byproduct of brewing beer has been banned in Victorian prisons since 2006, because Corrections Victoria says it “interferes with narcotic detection dogs.” Inmates used to smear packages of illicit drugs with Vegemite in the hope that the odour would distract the dogs from the contraband.

However McKechnie claims that this breaches his human right to “enjoy his culture as an Australian.” Most Australians revere Vegemite as an unfairly maligned culinary icon, and more than 80% of Australian households are estimated to have a jar in their pantries. But inmates in all 12 prisons in Victoria are denied the pleasure of the spread that became globally famous with it’s mention of a “Vegemite sandwich” in the song “Down Under”.

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.” 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. He was sentenced to life for murder and transferred a decade later from the Queensland to the Victorian prison system.

Above: The song that made Vegemite famous

The Department of Justice and Community Safety and Corrections Victoria declined to comment, although this is common practice with government agencies on issues that are before the courts. Prisons in Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania states and the Australian Capital Territory also ban Vegemite. But Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, does not. It is not known what the state of play is in Western Australia or the Northern Territory. Many Australians agree with victims of crime advocate and lawyer John Herron, who 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. 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.”

Manufactured in Australia since 1923, 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 weren’t raised on it. The last U.S. president to visit Australia, Barack Obama, once said: “It’s horrible.” But, Colin Hay, lead singer of Men At Work, once accused American critics of laying Vegemite on too thick, blaming a “more is more” U.S. culture. Australian travellers often bemoan Vegemite’s scarcity overseas, although any that visit or live in Hua Hin can be comforted by the knowledge that several stores locally, such as Big C, Tops and Villa Market, normally have stock.

Featured image courtesy of Tristanb, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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