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

FILE – A piece of toast is prepared with Vegemite in Sydney, Australia, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. Rick Rycroft/AP

Rick Rycroft/AP

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