While this might seem like watching out for their citizens, if you look deeper, it is control in disguise.
I have done some reading after your post and to an extent, you are right. From my research there are two ways that Australia can go with Cryptocurrency vs. Their proposed digital money systems.
Firslty, they can simply keep up with innovation, not stifle it and also maintain a level of freedom.
However, Australia has the stance that cryptocurrency is competing currency...and with this ideology, their best interest seems to be that they want to eventually eliminate the Australian onramps to the ecosystem. From what I've gathered, this is something that they are aiming to do in the next 5 years, as they update their money system up to a blockchain standard.
It's interesting how they portray their news and then what you find when you dig a little deeper. I will say that it does seem quote sinister to completely eliminate cryotocurrency from their country. I suppose it's one way to get rid of a superior competing currency though. I'm interested to see what happens next there...
I know they will have a hard time with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general considering that many people are opting for DEX over CEX. Well, in the near future, many things will become clearer.