In Australia, nearly all socket-outlets have a mains power switch associated with them, so it's just as easy to turn off the socket outlet as it would be to turn off a primary-side power switch of a direct-plug-in appliance.  The problem you really get is for hifi systems or computer systems where you have maybe half a dozen power plugs connected to an EPOD (electric portable outlet device). Usually these don't have individual switches and they're often located in hard to get at places because the user wants to keep the system tidy.  Take my tv/surround sound system at home as an example.  I have a VCR, amongst other things, connected to the EPOD which is behind the tv stand and relatively inaccessible.  I can reach the wall socket-outlet switch okay and turn everything off at the mains, but the problem is the VCR loses it's clock settings within a few minutes and it has to be re-programmed when power is restored, which is a nuisance.   It's less inconvenient to pay a couple of extra dollars a year to the power company to keep the equipment on standby than it is to reprogram the VCR every day.  Also, my pay TV set top box downloads software updates overnight every now and then when it's on standby.  If my system was turned off at the wall then I'd miss out on these updates.  There's no way, for convenience sake, that I'm going to selectively power off those appliances which are on the EPOD.

So, in my view, for Australia, individual mains-side power switches on every product would add little but extra purchasing costs to the product and not, in the real world, save a single tree.

The issue is much more complex than it might seem at a first glance, and there is no fast and simple solution to tackle the problem.

The European Commission has financed a study on Standby, and public deliverables are available at the following link:

http://www.ecostandby.org/underreview_documents.php

Have a look at it for a deep investigation of the Standby issue. 

According to me, electric energy is one of the scarce resources we have to deal with. Therefore any kind of energy waste has to be minimized. One example of energy waste are the so-called "Off-mode losses", when no function is offered to the user but still the device uses some energy.

On the other hand, if some function is offered to the user (a watch on an oven, for instance) then some power has to be allocated for the job.

Furthermore, I would be strongly against any measure which is advocating solutions, like the primary side switch: that is limiting in an unacceptable way innovation. Measures should give consumption targets, not suggesting the technical solutions to be adopted. It will be manufacturers duty (and challenge) to meet the targets while offering smarter products.