Yes, the legislation covers well beyond many extended warranties. Each case is looked at on a case by case basis though.Pretty well 5 years for major appliance faults, so I never even consider getting the extended warranty bullshit that they try to sell.
We were advised to look up how long our item would normally be expected to perform reliably, I.E. its expected life span. In our case it was seven to ten years but was displaying faults at just over two years.
We were also advised to try to find evidence online if our item had a history of the problem we were experiencing and it did.
So our advice was that, at least superficially, we had a strong case. In the end our item was replaced at no cost to us, outside the extended warranty period, which we hadn't taken anyway.
It is well worth looking up the ACCC guidelines if something breaks and your warranty has expired.