LABOR finance spokesperson Tony Burke promised the party will release more specific policies for regional Australia in the lead-up to next year's Federal Election.
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Mr Burke visited the city to meet with community leaders in health, small business and in not-for-profit organisations to discuss the federal budget.
He said Bendigo could expect more policies for regional Australia from the Labor Party.
"Some of the policies that have been announced so far have been more general, but that doesn't mean they don't have an impact here," Mr Burke said.
"The specifics of our regional approach, that's some of the announcements that are still to come.
"Policies that we sought bipartisanship on, like the domestic violence policy, hits every corner of regional Australia."
During a roundtable discussion, representatives of Bendigo Community Health and other providers spoke of the need for funding for preventative health.
Members of iLoddon Mallee discussed updates to connecting the NBN to Bendigo and law firms spoke of the need for more funding to vulnerable people.
There was also a conversation on potential superannuation and pension changes, and infrastructure spending.
Mr Burke said Labor's plan ahead of the next election was starting to take shape.
"We have more than $21 billion in improvements to the budget bottom line by making multinationals pay their fair share of tax, by dealing with superannuation tax concessions," he said.
"Unless someone deals with them, they're going to cost the budget more than the aged pension costs.
"These are large policy issues that must be dealt with, but Labor is the only party putting forward policy ideas to be able to deal with them."
Member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters attended the roundtable discussion with Mr Burke.
She said they wanted to get as much feedback from the community as possible as the party designed its policies.
"What's happening is that we're making a genuine effort to try and listen, to get feedback from community leaders and others, and get a broader approach during our time out of Canberra," Ms Chesters said.
"As Tony is the shadow finance minister, we had financial planners at the meeting who spoke about changes to small business tax concessions.
"We heard that after the initial sugar hit of being able to make purchases tax-free, it wasn't really going to be a huge help for a lot of our small businesses."
