Melbourne probes attempts to bribe councillors

The mayor of Melbourne will call for an inquiry into allegations Chinese investors had tried to bribe councillors in exchange for help with planning favours.

It emerged that in 2010, councillor Ken Ong was approached with a bribe, which investigators feel was not an isolated incident.

Quoting councillor Ong ABC Radio Australia's Connect Asia repirted that he was offered a discount on an apartment by investors but denied it was an outright bribe.

Ong said the investors had offered to help with a discount on an apartment, which he declined saying he was not in the market to buy an apartment and also that the process in Australia did not work like that.

He said it was not really a straight bribe, it was like a naive approach to try to progress a project, and that the foreign investor group did not know how to go about it.

The councillor has now called for a better education for investors, warning of a ''sub-culture'' of corruption taking root in Melbourne with a new generation of cashed-up Chinese developers, who had lately dominated sales of large blocks.