Australia
The Australian community service scheme is present in all jurisdictions and territories, but is never an alternative prison, and may be present in one of the five following forms:

1. In all jurisdictions, except Victoria and West Australia, community service orders are sentences in their own right.  Everywhere but Tasmania and South Australia must have consent from the offender before the order can be given, and in Queensland and South Australia the courts are required to avoid giving orders that conflict with education, employment, religion, or family commitments.

2. In Victoria and Western Australia, community service orders have been replaced by community based orders, which combine community service with supervised probation and/or attendance centers.

3. In Queensland, Western Australia, and Victoria, intensive correction orders are a higher levy sentence than community-based orders, but can only be used after a community service or community based order has been ruled out by the court.  In Queensland and Victoria, the intensive correction orders must contain community service requirements, supervision, and counseling.

4. In New South Wales and Australia Capital Territory, periodic detention is available.  The sentence of periodic detention occurs in two stages, the second of which involves detainees being subject to the approval of community committees as well as the requirement to report to a “nominated worksite” on the days of their periodic detention.

5. In the Northern Territory, punitive work orders exist as a higher tariff than or in addition to community service.  These orders are not frequently used, and are not an alternative to imprisonment.

Benefits occurring within the Australian community service scheme include support for the belief of reductionist efficacy, judicial popularity, and cheapness in comparison to prison.

New Zealand
In New Zealand, the community service scheme does not consist of varying forms, but through their Criminal Justice Amendment Act of 1980 and Criminal Justice Act of 1985, community service is a sentence in its own right.  Through those acts, after an offender is found guilty of an offense that is punishable by imprisonment, that offender may consent to between 20-200 hours of community service to be completed within 1 year.  In terms of reconviction rates, those who participated in community service were much less likely to be reconvicted than those who participated in periodic detention.

In 2002, the community service scheme of New Zealand changed with the passing of the Sentencing Act, as well as the Parole Act.  The Sentencing Act provided that a court must take into consideration the outcome of restorative justice process and gave courts the ability to adjourn if proceedings for restorative justice processes needed to be completed.  The Act also states that the court must take into account any offer made by or on behalf of the offender to provide reparation for their offense.  In terms of reparation, significant increases occurred in the year following the implementation of the Sentencing Act.  From 2002-2003 alone, the use of reparation sentences was greater than the total reparation sentences for the previous four years.

A significant change in the community service scheme involved combining periodic detention and community service into one “community work” category.  Community work refers to work done for any charitable, educational, cultural, or recreational organization, at any institution that serves disabled or elderly persons, and/or on any land that is own or leased by the public or the Crown.  Observation showed that over the five year examination period, the number of “work related community sentences” decreased slightly, while monetary fines increased.  However, the number of community work sentences the year after the Act was introduced was slightly higher than the combination of periodic detention and community service the year before.