Australian judge rejects prisoner’s human rights challenge to Vegemite ban

MELBOURNE, Australia -- A prisoner on Monday lost his challenge to an Australian state’s ban on inmates eating Vegemite after he argued in court that withholding the polarizing yeast-based spread breached his human right to “enjoy his culture as an Australian.”Andre McKechnie, 55, who is serving a life sentence for murder, took his battle for the salty, sticky, black-brown byproduct of brewing beer to the Supreme Court of the state of Victoria last year.He had argued being refused Vegemite denied him his right under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act to “enjoy his culture as an Australian in the community with other persons of Australian background,” court documents showed. Justice Claire Harris accepted prison authorities’ refusal to allow McKechnie Vegemite “limited his cultural rights” under the charter.But she found the ban was justified in meeting authorities’ goals of removing illicit drugs and alcohol from the prison system.“The limitation on Mr. McKechnie’s ability to enjoy Vegemite in community with other persons of Australian background is primarily that he is a prisoner,” Harris wrote in her 47-page judgment.Prison officials testified at a trial in July...