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Thursday 13th June 1996

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International:

Up to 17 Australian elite soldiers are feared dead following a collision between two army Blackhawk helicopters 150 metres above a remote area of northern Queensland. There are 11 other soldiers who were seriously injured. The soldiers were participating in an exercise 60 kilometres west of Townsville above an isolated military training range when the accident happened at 6.53pm last night.

The accident, the worst in Australian army training history, was being used to practice techniques for counter-terrorism operations and manouvers to rescue people from the top of tall buildings.

Political:

The states are hitting back at the Federal Government's plans to levy the normal wholesale tax on all purchases, like cars, made by local and state governments. In the past they have been exempt from these forms of tax collection.

In a tit for tat move the states are now looking at the option of charging the Commonwealth Government rates and pay roll tax - state taxations in which the Commonwealth has been exempted in the past.

Whatever the bureaucrats work out in the end, there is one thing for sure. The tax payer will carry the can - either in poorer services or higher taxes levied in one way or the other.

It is expected that rates in some of the smaller shires could rise by as much as 44% to cover this new Federal Government tax.

Business:

The State Government's proposed creation of a Au$21 billion super bank yesterday suffered a major setback when the Bank of Queensland turned down the offer to become part of the new banking conglomerate.

Bank of Queensland chairman, Neil Roberts, said that his board had decided that it was not in the bank's best interests to join the proposed merger between Metway, Suncorp and the Queensland Industry Development Corporation.

State treasurer Joan Sheldon said in reply that his statement was not unexpected and was not a major concern.

In other news Rupert Murdoch has offered the Japanese a 100 channel Pay TV satellite-fed service. The new service would be called JSkyB after the hugely profitable British BSkyB.

Sport:

Kiwi BOC Gases Super Touring Car star Greg Murphy is building up to his next race at Queensland's Lakeview race track with a jet setting trip around the world. Murphy has flown to France to drive with a top privateer in this weekend's 24 hour Le Mans.

Murphy will be behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 in the GT-2 class.

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Perfect day today. Beautiful sunny skies, although it was a bit cold (about 10 degrees celcius) at about 6am this morning. Another day in the big smoke finalising the launch of a new advertising service for a local newspaper. Watch this space for details..

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