Hundreds of people inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests in the US took to streets across Australia on Saturday to protest against corruption and corporate greed.

Hundreds of people turned out to protests in city centres, saying there are fundamental problems with Australia's democracy.

Similar gatherings were seen across the Asia Pacific region, including in New Zealand, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines.

In Sydney, about 500 people set up camp in Martin Place to protest against corruption and corporate greed.

They held up banners reading "you can't eat money" and "we are the 99 per cent".

Organiser Josh Lees said the protests are inspired by the activists who have been occupying a park in New York for more than a month.

"We are here as part of the global movement, the occupier movement, we are here with a similar message that we want a world for human need, not corporate greed," he said.

"The people at the moment that are running the world, that 1 per cent clearly have no solutions for the economic crisis.

"All they've done is bail themselves out, line their own pockets, while millions more are thrown into unemployment, austerity measure after austerity measure trying to make the poor and the working class pay for a crisis they did not cause."

Mr Lees say some protesters plan to set up camp indefinitely, but the location is yet to be determined.

Mark Goudkamp, another Sydney organiser, told the Martin Place rally: "The planet can't continue to go on with this unsustainable level of inequality."

"There needs to be a fundamental overhaul of how our economy works; we need to challenge those who are the most powerful who control the global economy and have an enormous influence on elected politicians," he said.

In Melbourne, some demonstrators also said they planed to camp out for days, and maybe weeks.

Melbourne organiser Nick Carson says Australia may have escaped the global financial crisis, but there are still serious issues affecting this nation.

"I think people want real democracy," he said.

"They don't want corporate influence over their politicians. They want their politicians to be accountable.

"We're not seeing unemployment [like] in Spain [where] tens of millions are unemployed.

"But what we are seeing is a lack of accountability, an unfair influence of giant mining companies, business councils and lobby groups, which represent 1 per cent of most wealthy Australians, while the other 99 per cent go relatively unrepresented."

Worldwide rallies

A smaller crowd turned out in Brisbane for the protests, which were organised as part of a global movement involving people in 951 cities across 82 countries.

Several hundred people marched up the main street in Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, joining a rally in the city square where about 3,000 chanted and banged drums, denouncing corporate greed.

About 200 gathered in the capital Wellington and 50 in a park in the earthquake-hit southern city of Christchurch.

Joey Tan was among the protesters in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei.

"Well, we still have the 1 per cent in Taiwan as well. And most of the people here are the 99 per cent," he said.

"And people have no jobs and there are wages cuts from the recession of 2008 and now it's all happening again. And people are really annoyed by it."

The protest leader in the Philippines capital, Jom Salvador, says they are fighting for the future.

"The people of the Philippines, the American people and the peoples of the other parts of the world, are tremendously affected by the crisis of capitalism," he said.

"All over the world, people are rising up, including women, to fight for our rights, to fight for the future of our children, to fight for the future of the peoples of the world."

Concrete demands of the movement are few, other than a general sense that the "greedy and corrupt" rich, and especially banks, should pay more and that elected governments are not listening.

ABC/wires