As an Australian I can comment on this, theres this wonderful thing called "Context"

At McDonalds they refer to them as fries, but if you ask for a large chips, they know what you mean. If you go into a petrol station and ask where the crisps are, nobodies head explodes. If you go into a place that has ALL 3 (french fries, chips and crisps) and say "Can I get some chips" the person will ask for clarificaton.

British roots and American television has made OUR english quite flexible.

it holds, but we might refer to "fries" as hot chips if there's possibility of confusion

It's context sensitive. We know what we mean.

1. "I'm going to pick up some chips on my way to your place."
2. "Hey, can i have some of your chips?"

Couldn't be simpler.

They're Hot Chips if you're being fancy

Shut up and get some real i.e. Belgian fries.

This isn't poking fun at us, this is just facts :)

as an Australian let me explain, fast to get, unhealthy potato = chips.

Let's confuse them even more:

Hot chips and potato chips.

They’re freedom fries now

You see, Chips are deep fried slices of potato, but Chips are ..

Usually not a problem because of context but you can easily specify hot chips or packet chips in places where they might have both such as a school or sports canteen.

My friend from Adelaide always says crisps.

Errr... I'm from the UK and they're fries. These are chips If it's think it's fries, if it's thick it's a chip.

It's communicated by context cues the same way one word has different meanings and context points to towards the meaning the person is communicating with a word

Though it does get annoying when the context cues are missing for example someone asking you if you want chips and not specifying what type

I'm guessing Australian language for "chips" calls them both that because they are a product made from potato that is usually salted and the two in the image are just different styles of the same potato product

Just came back from Australia. Chips (or crisps) don't seem to exist anywhere but grocery/convenience stores. So I never really heard them referred to as anything.

Restaurants exclusively serve fries as far as I could tell. Even with sandwiches. And they call them "chips" whether they are skinny or fat.

Latin America: Hold my beer

the only question i have is why does the person representing aussies looks like Jackie Chan?

I've not seen that lulzsec character in a long long time...