The New South Wales opposition has warned against a plan to force voters to show identification at polling booths, saying the laws are unnecessary and would serve only to disenfranchise parts of the electorate.



The NSW government is due to respond in coming months to a parliamentary committee’s report on the 2015 state election, which recommended that voters be required to produce ID in future polls.

On Tuesday federal Liberal MP for North Sydney and NSW moderate powerbroker, Trent Zimmerman, called for compulsory voter ID for federal elections in the Coalition party room meeting.

Identification laws are designed as a way of preventing voter fraud, but are criticised for imposing a barrier to voter participation.



Research, particularly from the United States, has shown stricter identification laws have restricted less educated and lower-income voters from participating.

The Human Rights Law Centre has previously warned such laws provide a barrier to ageing and younger voters, and to Indigenous Australians, those sleeping rough, or residents in remote parts of the electorate.



The NSW opposition leader, Luke Foley, is now calling for the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, to rule out the proposal.



“It’s undemocratic, duplicitous, and wrong,” Foley said.

“There is zero evidence that this has ever happened on any kind of meaningful scale in New South Wales. No one has credibly suggested that aspiring politicians are organising gangs to turn up at polling booths in disguise.

“The most serious electoral abuse to be perpetrated in recent years was not undertaken by a dolled-up squad of imposters, but by members of the Liberal party who conspired to conceal millions of dollars in prohibited political donations from property developers.”



Zimmerman told Guardian Australia voter ID would be a “reasonably simple step to ensure the integrity of the voting system”.

“It seems bizarre that you require more ID to get into a pub in Sydney than to determine the prime minister of Australia. It’s about time we ensured the possibility of multiple voting is precluded by this simple step.”

He said there were 8,000 cases of suspected multiple voting referred to the Australian Federal Police at the 2013 federal election.

Zimmerman said it would be to prevent than punish multiple voting because of lack of resources to investigate and the high burden of proof for prosecution.

Zimmerman claimed the proposal had widespread support in the federal Coalition and he would continue to push for it to be adopted as policy.

Asked about the possibility voters could be disenfranchised, Zimmerman said that people who attended the polls without ID could cast a provisional ballot and have their identity checked later before their vote was counted.

There was also a “legitimate discussion” about whether photo ID would be required or a credit card or Medicare card would suffice, which would also alleviate the concern of disenfranchisement.



Berejiklian’s office referred questions to the Department of Premier and Cabinet, which simply said it was still considering its response to the recommendation. Its response is due to be tabled in NSW parliament in mid-May.



The recommendation was made by NSW’s joint standing committee on electoral matters, despite evidence from the NSW Electoral Commission that voter fraud was not taking place on any significant scale.



The then NSW electoral commissioner, Colin Barry, told the committee that the laws were likely to bring “no gain but substantial downsides”.

“My concern would be that making voting more inconvenient to electors will act to reduce participation, particularly amongst older electors and those who may have a tenuous engagement with the democratic process,” Barry said.



The ABC’s election analyst, Antony Green, also gave evidence to the committee in a personal capacity, cautioning against implementing a voter identification requirement.



“I worry about voter ID laws, partly because I think that it is a solution looking for a problem,” Green said.

Queensland introduced a form of voter identification laws prior to its 2015 state election.

The laws, since repealed, allowed voters to use a wide range of documents to identify themselves, and included safeguards to allow those who forgot their ID to still cast their ballot.

Even still, the laws were criticised by community groups for causing some voters to be turned away.