ASIAN-BASED property developers and business interests are underpinning Gary Singer’s tilt for lord mayor of Melbourne, The Age transparency campaign has revealed.



This comes as lord mayor candidate Gary Morgan publicly remonstrated with the incumbent, Robert Doyle, for failing to address questions about the cash-for-access meetings with developers organised by his number one council candidate Kevin Louey.



At a public forum last night at the Wheeler Centre, The Age asked Mr Doyle if he denied the existence of the meetings, in which developers were asked for donations in return for Town Hall access. The Age also asked if Mr Doyle attended the second meeting of developers, held in the middle of the year.



Mr Doyle spoke instead of The Age’s transparency campaign about donations, which he has declined to join.



Mr Morgan accused Mr Doyle of not answering the questions, which he said were straightforward and deserved an answer. Later he told The Age: ‘‘He has no answers. He keeps avoiding the question. If it is untrue he should sue.’’



The Sunday Age revealed the meetings at the weekend.



Approached after the event and asked if he would like to deny the meetings, Mr Doyle shook his head and walked off.



At another meeting last night, Cr Jackie Watts spoke of ‘‘the cronyism, the stranglehold on information, the lack of transparency, the suppression and the media manipulation’’ of Cr Doyle’s time as mayor.



Speaking at a forum of Melbourne City Council candidates for residents and businesspeople at Docklands last night Cr Watts said: ‘‘We need a change in leadership.’’



Seven of the nine teams running in the Melbourne council elections have begun to declare their funding, in an Age campaign aimed at giving voters political donation information before they vote by October 26.



Of the $277,224 campaign funds declared, lord mayor and council candidates are contributing 80 per cent themselves. Pollster Gary Morgan will spend $70,000 personally on his bid.



Former deputy lord mayor and Sotheby’s Australia chief executive officer Mr Singer has declared $18,000 in donations and says he will make up any shortfall personally.



His donations include $2000 from Chinese developer Hengyi Australia, which is developing a 21-storey apartment complex on William Street, $1000 from KST Partners, who offer taxation advice to Asian entrepreneurs, $2000 from Richard Wong, publisher of The Asian Executive Magazine, and $1000 from Chinese-based Yucai Group.



Although Cr Doyle has refused to declare his donations. Carl Jetter, a Team Doyle member, has said he expected up to $500,000 would be spent by the lord mayor’s leadership group.



Candidates must declare their donations within 40 days after the election.



Mr Singer said he felt comfortable taking money from developers and other city business interests because he had been open and transparent in declaring them. If he won, he would not vote on any issues relating to donors.



Anarchist Joseph Toscano is running a bare-bones campaign with a self-funded budget of $650. Docklands businessman Keith Rankin said he was not receiving any donations, but declined to reveal how much he was spending of his own money, so he quit the campaign.



African-Australian community leader Berhan Ahmed is taking a work-it-out-later approach to campaign budgeting. His team has racked up $65,000 in bills.



The Greens have declared $32,973 of campaign funding, including three party donations: $3587 from fund-raising events, $22,395 in state allocations and $1527 in branch allocations.



Pharmacist David Nolte has declared $13,650, mostly self-funded. Cr Brian Shanahan has declared $76,950, mostly funded by himself and his team.



With CAROLYN WEBB