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In NZ there is the "Consumer Guarantees Act":

https://www.consumerprotection.govt.nz/general-help/consumer...

Which basically adds a government mandated warranty for goods and services sold to consumers (non-businesses).

In Australia the CCL means that if Apple cause a problem like this, they have to repair the product. There's a good chance that they might get a 4 year old Macbook Air and have to fix it for this issue.

Apple tend to be pretty good at that anyway. They gave me the top-spec mid-2015 MacBook Pro I'm writing this comment on for free when the graphics chip in my 2011 MacBook died a couple of times, before there was even an official replacement program.

The consumer law only guarantees for two years (although I think there is some provision for extra "expected life" of a product, can't remember exactly), and I didn't have Apple Care, so they didn't have to do that.

Sure, but here in Australia they can't limit the warranty like that. They tried this and got a massive fine. Hence AppleCare in Australia is different to what you get in the U.S. because we are protected by law.

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