I always tip when I've had a nice meal which was good value and the service was excellent... ha, who am I kidding - I live in Perth.
I hate tipping, always have. It annoyed me in the US because of the constant need to carry small notes and the constant 'well that was $14, but that really means I need to pay $14 plus 20% which is $16.80, so I could just pay $17 if I have the exact amount but I only have a 20 so I'll need to tell the waitress how much tip I want to give and hope she's not offended oh but I haven't even included tax yet either blah blah blah'. $14 = $14 is much, much simpler.
The fact that hospitality workers over there get paid
less than minimum wage irks me too. What's the point of having a minimum wage if you can pay less than it? It's basically a guilt trip for the customer to pay their salary rather than supplementary income for being good (or hot if you're a girl) at what you do which it should be.
Anyway, over here our wages are a LOT higher so the
need for tipping isn't there. It tends to lead to lesser service standards (or less 'hi sir, can I help you sir?' fakeness depending on your POV), but that's an aside. I figure if you're charging me $20 for a bowl of pasta that is about $2 worth of ingredients then the $18 margin is there to cover your costs and give you a profit margin sufficient to keep the business going.