Media reports circulating regarding a ban on politicians electioneering at shopping centres are a beat up, according to Milton Cockburn, Shopping Centre Council of Australia executive director. 

The story is based on an exchange of submissions to the Joint Committee on Electoral Affairs in July last year after Federal MP Gary Gray argued there should be unfettered access to shopping centres for campaigning purposes.

Cockburn told Inside Retailing the Shopping Centre Council had responded with a submission and that the Joint Committee did not make any recommendations on the issue.

In the submission, Cockburn said that while shopping centre owners appreciated the desire of candidates to have access to the crowds shopping centres generate, the granting of this was not a straightforward matter.

Gray, a former Labor campaign director, was barred from one shopping centre at the last federal election and was charged $460 to set up a card table at another.

He said he feared some companies could pick and choose which candidates were allowed access to shopping centres.

Cockburn's submission read: "Decisions about access to shopping centre must be a matter for individual shopping centre owners and managers.

"Most shopping centre owners exercise commonsense in responding to requests for access. Where bans or limitations on political campaigning have been imposed it is usually because such activity has been found to be too disruptive for retailers and too intrusive for customers.

"Many shopping centre owners have developed specific policies on access to their centres to ensure consistency of treatment."