Hunter Workers secretary Daniel Wallace opened the rally, which included Newcastle federal MP Sharon Claydon and state MP Tim Crakanthorp, taking aim at the "continued attacks" on living standards and "institutions that stand in the way" of a "conservative agenda"

"There's more $100 notes in this country than what there is $5 notes, nearly three times as many," he said.

"But we don't seem to see them because they're stacked under mattresses, they're used in all sorts of trade. How long does a $5 note last in circulation? About six years before it's worn out and returned to the Mint.

"But yet a $100 note? They don't really know how long they last because only about 10 per cent of them have ever been returned to the Mint."

Mr Wallace took aim the salaries of top-flight executives like Qantas CEO Allan Joyce, who Mr Wallace said earned $93,000 per week.

"That's an absolute shame," he said. "There's more that we can do and we need to recognise we are part of the problem. We need to help build a solution to poverty right across Australia."

The rally heard from a range of other speakers, including the AMIEU's Grant Courtney, Nova for Women and Children's Kelly Hansen, and Fair Go For Pensioners' Fred Krausert.

Mr Krausert said the "people we put in parliament" were forgetting "about the people suffering".

He said it was "shameful" that a country "as rich as this" could not look after its own, saying there was "a lot of pensioners out there eating dog food".

"It's right across the board, whether its Labor or Liberal," Mr Wallace said. "I support all those Labor people that are out there in the community but there's quite a few of them that are out there asleep at the wheel."

The rally took aim at the federal government's amount of Defence funding, highlighting how $3.5 billion would raise the Newstart allowance by $75 per week.

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