Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh says Labor doesn't want the GST to become an election issue and is calling on the government to rule out a hike now.
Mr Leigh believes an increase in the GST will hurt household consumption and has accused the government of refusing to engage in the tax debate.
Responding to Treasurer Scott Morrison's earlier promise that any tax changes would be taken to the Australian people, Mr Leigh said the government was continually "floating thought bubbles" on tax.
He warned the government to stop "dog-ate-my-homework" excuses and argue the case for raising the GST.
"The Australian public are rightly scared about what might happen to their household budgets," he told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.
Labor wants to balance the budget by hiking the tobacco excise, changes to superannuation tax and cracking down on multinational tax avoidance.
Mr Morrison earlier refused to be drawn on whether the government is considering either increasing the rate of the GST or broadening its base into other areas such as health and education.
But he says tax changes are being looked at as part of a wider economic plan.
"Right now, the issue is not the GST," he told Sky News.
"What we're trying to achieve is higher rates of jobs growth in particular and how is the tax system actually stopping people ... achieving the goals they want to achieve."
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