I just know that this will come back to bite me, but here goes:
Australia is a lot better than it is fashionable to give it credit for. If I was smooth tongued and eloquent, I could give you a well worded story why. But I'm not and I can't. So I'd rather share some of my experiences.
I have had several years doing route evaluations for a European airline. And that has been an eye-opener. I cannot believe the places that RPT jets fly to in Europe as regular transport. Think of the worst old closed runways of Bankstown, and then try and run 737-800s and A320s into them.
Actually that comparison is too easy because Bankstown has no mountains at the end of the runway. Try operations on 1600m runways with 737/320s, and with mountains at the end, and rain, and no grooving. And add in euro-RESAs (which I would like to express as Really European **** Areas).
No chance - run off the end of these airports, and you're crunched. Add in runway gradients that we would use for skiing or fairground rides. We simply don't have those in Oz, and we have all manner of things to keep things on track. Credit to FL and his bureaucratic mates for keeping that balance between safety and operations at the regulatory level. We are actually travelling well.
So when it comes ICAO differences – yeah, we've got some. So what? From my side (which is airports) we are on the safe side of flying and that is what counts.