I don’t believe we do have anything like EU261.
We have consumer laws that say flight must be operated within a reasonable time (product suitability), but the remedy is a refund.
But that refund doesn’t usually cover a last-minute walk-up fare on another airline. Like Eu261 is supposed to.
qantas’ terms and conditions say they will put you on the next available one of their services. Great. If you are platinum and get one of the last few seats on tomorrow’s flight to LAX.
If you’re non-status and passenger 341, you might not be as lucky. Platinum kids get to go to disneyland. Non-status get told ‘sorry, no mickey mouse for you’ 
Taking an airline to court when there are very few protections… well… all it takes is one passenger to lose and be saddles with 10k lawyer fees and the rest of the market pretty much dries up.
