The obvious card providers are UBS / Swisscard (Credit Suisse) / CornerCard / Viseca - they all offer Visa and Mastercards.

I think the SBB, Jelmoli and Migros also offer Visa and / or Mastercard, but not so sure about those.

If you're looking to carry a balance from month to month, a credit card is the way to go.

If you'll pay the whole lot off each month, a credit card still works, but you could also look at Charge cards (predominantly Amex), or prepaid cards as were already mentioned.

Don't forget you could also add him as a supplementary cardholder onto your own existing or new card. If you have or will have an Australian card this might be a good option, as you'd avoid foreign currency fees. Of course you'd also be responsible for the whole balance