Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen visited Ballarat on Wednesday to talk about the issue. 

Mr Bowen is another in the long list of high profile Labor MPs who have visited Ballarat over the past two months in a sign the party is already putting emphasis on the electorate with an election expected within the next 12 months.  

Changes to the GST are set to become a key election issue with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's plans to reform Australia's tax system already on the agenda.

The most high profile change has been the option of raising the GST to 15 per cent  or the broadening of the tax to cover new items such as fresh food or health services.

However, Mr Bowen said both he and local MP Catherine King were both staunchly opposed to any changes. 

“In the Labor Party we are very clear, the GST should not be increased and should not be broadened to fresh food and health services,” he said. “The exemptions for fresh food to the GST have very important impacts for Australian families.”

He said there was a constant push from medical professionals to get residents to eat more fresh food, increasing the cost would only make that more difficult.  

“We have a diabetes crisis in Australia and if you talk to health professionals they tell you what a backward step it would be to make fresh food even more expensive,” he said. 

“It would be a terrible blow to the efforts of Australia's medical professions. 

“Even Peter Costello, the architect of the GST, knew that it shouldn't be applied to fresh food and health.” 

Mr Bowen also met with a number of the region’s councils and business groups as part of the trip to Ballarat. 

Despite the criticism, little is known about what changes  Mr Turnbull would take to the next election and earlier this week he stressed it was premature to say "the government has landed on one particular change or another" on tax reform.

Although a range options for the GST are currently being considered.