When in doubt, blame the banks! From the Australian:

Under new ATM access rules due to start on March 3, banks will no longer pay each other a fee every time a customer uses another institution's machine. But nothing will prevent banks from charging their customers a "foreign ATM fee".

Just like with so many things in this country, one government regulation will lead to another. Already we have 'consumer groups' (lobbyists/interest groups) worrying that the banks are going to increase charges to consumers as well as maintain old ones -- NAB, Westpac, ANZ and St George have already announced they will continue to charge foreign ATM fees and the others will follow shortly after.

Consumer advocate Choice yesterday stepped up pressure on the big banks to scrap foreign ATM fees, saying: "The benefits of direct charging reforms will be quickly undermined if customers are charged a separate second fee from their own bank."

Honestly, what do they expect? This is a perfect example of what happens when governments get involved, I can see it now:

Joe: "Hey Sam, those banks are ripping people off, lets come up with a way to stop them!"

Sam: "I agree completely. Let's get our whole team on this and have the new regulation out by friday!"

...one year later (on a friday!) the new regulation comes into effect...

Joe: "Sam, the banks don't seem to be suffering at all. In fact, it looks like they've found a loophole and are actually ripping customers off even more now!"

Sam: "Call the team Joe, it's going to be a long week!"

Now the above is a pretty poor example but it gets the point across -- history has shown over and over again that once you add one regulation they will continue to pile up until they've become some inticrate web of rules that only some 'expert' can untangle. But hey, that creates jobs right? What a joke. Why doesn't the government just deregulate the finance and banking sector, give up control of the dollar (yes, allow banks to create their own currency backed by whatever they want -- not guns like in our current system) and let the market decide if they're being ripped off or not.