Dave points out here another point, without meaning to. Australia (as a Brit I hate to say this) confounds logic by approaching payments matters in a most peculiar way, and this is just another example.
Here’s an example, discussing what the poster calls the the most ill-considered banking product ever devised.
Source: Digital Money Blog: The most ill-considered banking product ever devised? I doubt it.
Bankwatch 
As an Australian, I am just wondering what aspects of the Australian payments systems you find “peculiar”?
The pace and use of debit, and he rules around them struck me as if nothing else different than the rest of the world. I don’t profess to be a payment expert however, and defer to your experience in the land of Oz.
eg:
https://bankwatch.wordpress.com/2006/04/29/australia-equalises-interchange-costs-for-debit-visa-debit/
Retail operations have never really been my main interest. What is the overseas experience on these?
Generally debit is showing extreme growth. Banks are all issuers of debit, and acquirers at their ATM’s. In Canada, debit is pervasive. In UK is big, and in the US is growing rapidly.
This from pbs.org
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/more/world.html
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Debit cards are more popular in Europe by a long mark: The French have 39 million debit cards and just 9 million credit cards; 82 million Germans hold 93 million debit cards, but just 20 million credit cards; and British citizens have 60 million debit cards. Usually combined with overdraft protection, debit cards provide a cheaper alternative but offer lower lines of credit. The Nationwide Building Society, a bank in the U.K., for example, charges 6.75 percent for a debit card overdraft loan, but 15.9 percent for a credit card loan. German banks are legally bound to offer every account holder an ongoing overdraft of three times the borrower’s monthly salary, lessening the need for credit.
Before we pick on Aussie banks too much, I should point out that Canadian banks are looking at introducing these half-sized cards as well.
Really? Who in Canada is doing that?