The living costs are the ones that are taken in consideration when you determine if a country is wealthy or not. UK's living costs are quite high compared with their salaries. Australia is just fleeced because stupid taxes and the fact that is a region by itself (only in the mind of the publishers). In the past, the cost of physical copies of the games transported in Australia was high, but the today digital copies prices are unjustified.
The today's pricing is off-charts. When the digital era started everyone expected lower prices. Instead, prices doubled. tripled or quadrupled for the digital goods.
The one thing i complain: Russia and Ukraine get preferential treatement, while any other countries from the Eastern/Southern/Central Europe are paying the same price as the countries from the Western Europe. Either make the same price for everyone or include other countries in the special pricing area. To be honest i prefer a fair price for everyone. Affordable prices means more sales. Yes, the profit won't be as high, but it will be constant and for a longer period (which means that it might surpass the immediate profit if the product is deemed as a quality product). But today's market seeks only the immediate profit: in and out and damn the customer.
My condoleances to the aussies.:(