Early developments in the Australian system of provision for poor people led first to voluntary charitable assistance and then to a more generalized system of social security. A national scheme of old age pensions came in only in 1908; and social assistance schemes, as well as demogrants for defined statuses have gradually spread throughout the Australian Commonwealth. Specific provisions to meet crisis situations remain the responsibility of individual States. There are strong discretionary elements in the whole system. The arrangements for appeals against administrative decisions, and the reviews of these arrangements recently made, are then examined critically.