Labor leader Bill Shorten has flagged a rise in the dole following a review if elected, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison continues to reject any changes.
The Australian Council of Social Service is seeking to put poverty and the low rate of Newstart on the election agenda.
ACOSS boss Cassandra Goldie said the election should be a "contest of ideas to strengthen communities, grow inclusively and secure our collective future".
"After 25 years without an increase to Newstart and related allowances, it's not good enough for the government to tell people struggling to find paid work that they need to 'have a go'," she said on Friday.
"It's also not good enough for people in desperate circumstances to be told by the Labor Party that they have to wait for a review before they get any financial relief.
"The incoming government needs to step up and raise Newstart to make our system stronger and give people the best chance of finding suitable paid work."
Newstart for a single person without children is $555.70 a fortnight, having increased by $5.50 in March.
Mr Morrison told reporters Australia had "one of the best safety nets" in the world.
"That safety net is not just Newstart, it is the myriad of other income supports that are provided ... rent assistance, Medicare, support through affordable medicines," Mr Morrison said in Sydney.
"The way you keep that system in place is that you ensure you get more people into work, so the budget that supports those payments is not coming under the stress it otherwise might be."
Recent figures show 42 per cent of single Newstart recipients also receive rent assistance and 18 per cent get the family tax benefit.
Asked whether he supported an increase in Newstart, Mr Shorten told reporters in Sydney: "I think there has to be. But let's see what happens with the review. We're not holding a review to lower it. We're not holding a review to forget about it."
Mr Shorten said the level of the dole was part of a broader problem in Australia.
"Everything has been going up except people's wages ... we're seeing a lot of people being left behind."
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said Mr Shorten should outline the cost of any dole increase.
"People deserve to know by how much, at what cost and how he will pay for it," Senator Cormann told AAP.
"Or is this just a disingenuous, unfunded Labor thought bubble masquerading as an election promise and designed to mislead people?"
The Australian Greens are campaigning to raise Newstart by $75 a week to cover the cost of essentials and to set up an independent "equality commission" to provide advice to the government on setting rates of income support and strategies to reduce inequality.
