The laws may not be all that different as those same protections are provided here by law. The problem is (here) that PayPal maintain they are a financial provider and therefore are exempt from Australia Consumer Law. I'm still uncertain about this claim, whereas ebay is bound by those laws. My problem was that ebay suggested I make my claim via PayPal and once that happened they said they could no longer help me and I had to use PayPal! In order to obtain a refund PayPal required me to first return the goods, a mini metal lathe that I bought here in Australia but the return address I was given was in the UK!!!!!
The ACL states it is the responsibility of the seller to recover the goods and this is where they stated that they were exempt from the ACL. After three months of fighting I lodged a complaint with the Australian Financial Transactions Authority (which regulates financial companies) and asked if PayPal could require me to forego my legal rights. Funnily enough within a couple of days I had a message from PayPal offering me a refund!
My apologies for the long post but I wanted to clarify to Australian readers that they do have strong legal rights but be very wary of PayPal.