(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
The state Liberal-National Party government said it introduced the law in May to reduce voter fraud.
Stefan Armbruster reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
Opponents said it will deprive some of the most marginalised groups, including Indigenous and ethnic communities, of their democratic right.
"Voter fraud has been an issue in the past and there does continue to be an issue of people voting multiple times or voting as other people,” said the LNP Stafford candidate Bob Andersen.
"It's not too much to ask just to produce ID and verify who they are and then give their one vote and make it count."
The LNP has presented no evidence of systematic fraud in Queensland elections.
"The last time this was thoroughly looked at, the court of Disputed Returns in Chatsworth went through 20,000 votes and the instances they found of double voting were very, very minor,” said Labor’s Queensland state secretary Anthony Chisholm.
"So there is no justification for this and they're just trying to advantage themselves and stop people voting and they're the people that need a voice the most."
Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Commission also opposes the voter ID law.
"The majority of votes that were found to be suspicious is where elderly people may have had a visitor and voted and then the family has taken them out on voting day and they've voted," said commissioner Kevin Cocks.
"I think just recently there were some admissions that people were drunk and they voted more than once.
"We do have concerns particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, people from a non-English speaking background, elderly people, young people, young people; often do feel disenfranchised."
Voters will have to bring a driver's licence, passport, benefit card, utility bill, bank statement or letter from the Electoral Commission of Queensland.
If they cannot, they can still vote, after first filling out a declaration swearing to who they are.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Legal Service (ATSILS) also opposed the law.
"The two major issues is the shame factor and possessing the forms of ID. There's a big homeless population in Brisbane and all those people with transient lives, they don't possess the ID that's required to vote,” said Michael Mancktelow.
He gives an example of at least one Indigenous resident in Stafford who is going to have difficulties.
"One of my friends lost his license, he doesn't have a car so he was using his license as ID, and it's a simple matter of money.
"It's expensive and he's not going to renew his license, he's also not the tenant at the place he is residing, nor is his name on any of the bills,” he said.
The Queensland Electoral Commission was unavailable for an interview on the issue but said in a statement to SBS that it had trained staff, advertised the change in the media and an interpreter service is available.
It claims a 100 per cent success rate with pre-poll voters so far.
Labor plans to remove the law if it wins the next state election, but voter IDs could soon be required elsewhere, after the federal LNP last month adopted it as a national policy.
