I've had bad service in Australia and great service in Australia. Bad service in the USA and great service in the USA. It's all about people, not the threat of no tip.
Really? The difference there is that you can give immediate feedback in the US to your server in the form of no tip. In Australia, they don't give a crap.
Incidentally, wait staff in Australia are paid a LOT more per hour. In the busiest times of the day, they're often paid 3x or what you would get per hour in the United States. I hate to break it to you, but that shows up on your check. Just because you can't conceptualize that doesn't mean that it isn't real.