Australian prisoner sues for his 'human right' to eat Vegemite

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Australian prisoner sues for his 'human right' to eat Vegemite

2025-11-19 10:07 Last Updated At：10:20

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A prisoner is challenging an Australian state’s ban on inmates eating Vegemite, claiming in a lawsuit that withholding the polarizing 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, according to documents released to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

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 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.

A decade ago, Vegemite's then-U.S. owner, Mondelez International, rejected media reports that remote Australian Indigenous communities were using Vegemite to brew alcohol in bathtubs.

Mondelez said in a statement the manufacturing process killed the yeast and that “Vegemite cannot be fermented into alcohol.”

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 weren’t raised on it.

The last U.S. president to visit Australia, Barack Obama, once said: “It’s horrible.”

Australian band Men at Work aroused international curiosity 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” U.S. culture.

It’s a favorite on breakfast toast and in cheese sandwiches, with most fans agreeing it's best applied sparingly. Australian travelers bemoan Vegemite's scarcity overseas.

The Australian government intervened in April when Canadian officials temporarily prevented a Toronto-based cafe from selling Vegemite in jars and on toast in a dispute media branded as “Vegemite-gate.” The Canadians relented and allowed the product to be sold despite its failure to comply with local regulations dealing with food packaging and vitamin fortification.

The Department of Justice and Community Safety and Corrections Victoria declined to comment Tuesday. Government agencies generally maintain it is not appropriate to comment 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. Other Australian jurisdictions, Western Australia state and the Northern Territory, had yet to tell AP where they stand on the spread.

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,” said Herron, whose daughter Courtney Herron 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,” Herron added.

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.

McKechnie’s lawyers didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Historic rains and flooding trigger dramatic rescues in Washington state

BURLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Eddie Wicks and his wife went to bed in their house next to the Snoqualmie River on a Washington state farm known for its sunflower mazes and Christmas trees, they weren’t too worried about the flooding heading their way.

After 30 years living in the city of Duvall northeast of Seattle, their family had plenty of experience with floods and always made it through largely unscathed. But as they moved their two donkeys to higher ground and their eight goats to their outdoor kitchen, the water began to rise much quicker than anything they'd experienced before.

“It was hours, not days," he said. “In four hours it had to come up 4 feet.”

As the water engulfed their home Thursday afternoon, deputies from the King County Sheriff’s Office marine rescue dive unit were able to rescue them and their dog, taking them on a boat the half mile (800 meters) across their field, which had been transformed into a lake.

They were among the thousands forced to evacuate as an unusually strong atmospheric river dumped a foot (30 centimeters) or more of rain in parts of western and central Washington over several days this week and swelled rivers, inundating communities and prompting dramatic rescues from rooftops and vehicles.

The record floodwaters were expected to continue to slowly recede Saturday, but authorities warn that waters will remain high for days, and that there is still danger from potential levee failures or mudslides. There is also the threat of more rain forecast for Sunday.

Still, no deaths have been reported.

Authorities have yet to estimate the costs, but photos and videos show widespread damage, with entire communities or neighborhoods flooded around western and central Washington. Officials have conducted dozens of water rescues, debris and mudslides have closed highways, and raging torrents have washed out roads and bridges.

President Donald Trump has signed the state’s request for an emergency declaration, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said.

Officials issued “go now” orders Wednesday to tens of thousands of residents in the Skagit River flood plain north of Seattle, including the farming city of Burlington, home to nearly 10,000 people. By Friday morning, muddy water overflowed a slough and rushed into homes, prompting more urgent warnings for Burlington.

The rain arriving Sunday will cause rivers to rise again, said Robert Ezelle, director of the Washington Military Department’s emergency management division.

National Guard members knocked on hundreds of doors in Burlington early Friday to tell residents about the evacuation notice and help transport them to a shelter. By late morning the evacuation order was lifted for part of the city and waters were slowly receding.

The Skagit River drains a wide swath of the rugged Cascade Range before winding west across broad, low-lying farmlands and tulip fields on its way to Puget Sound. Cities like Burlington sit on that delta, leaving them especially vulnerable to floods.

The river crested overnight Thursday into Friday at 37 feet (11.2 meters) in the valley’s biggest city, Mount Vernon, surpassing the previous record by a few inches. A flood wall held fast and protected the downtown area.

About 1,000 Burlington residents had to evacuate in the middle of the night, Ferguson said. The water was reportedly 2 to 3 feet (60 to 90 centimeters) deep in certain areas as it flooded homes, police department spokesperson Michael Lumpkin said.

Mario Rincón had been staying at a hotel with his family, including a week-old infant. They returned to their Burlington property Friday but couldn’t get inside, as murky floodwaters reached part-way up the first floor.

“It’s going to be a few days before the water recedes,” he said.

Near the U.S.-Canada border, Sumas, Nooksack and Everson — which together have about 6,500 residents — were inundated. The border crossing at Sumas was closed.

In a social media message, Sumas Mayor Bruce Bosch acknowledged community members were anxious to return to their homes.

“Hang in there," he wrote.

In King County, crews worked through the night to fill a sinkhole on a levee along the Green River in the Seattle suburb of Tukwila, County Executive Girmay Zahilay said Friday.

Authorities across the state in recent days have rescued people from cars and homes.

Helicopters rescued two families on Thursday from the roofs of homes in Sumas that had been flooded, according Frank Cain Jr., battalion chief for Whatcom County Fire District 14.

Near Deming, two homes collapsed into the Nooksack River as erosion undercut them. No one was inside at the time.

Climate change has been linked to some intense rainfall. Scientists say that without specific study they cannot directly link a single weather event to climate change, but in general it’s responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme storms, droughts, floods and wildfires.

Rush reported from Portland, Oregon, and Golden from Seattle. Associated Press writers Gene Johnson in Seattle and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.