2008 Australian Grand Prix, Race
Seven cars finished the race but Barrichello was later disqualified for passing a red light at the pit lane exit. Lewis Hamilton won the race having led all but 5 laps during pit stops. Nick Heidfeld finished second and Nico Rosberg recorded his first podium in third. Kazuki Nakajima was the final car to finish, but was later given a ten-place grid penalty for the 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix, the next race, after making contact with Kubica under safety car conditions. Bourdais, in his debut scored two championship points, despite not finishing the race, and classified seventh.


2008 Australian Grand Prix, Post-race
"Shortly after we called Rubens in for the second of two planned pit stops, Timo Glock had a crash and the safety car was deployed. We had no alternative but to continue to bring him in because he was out of fuel, although we realised that the pit lane was going to be closed due to the safety car and that this would result in a ten-second stop-go penalty. During the pit stop the lollipop was lifted just a fraction early while the fuel hose was just coming off the car. After the pit stop Rubens exited the pit lane when the lights were still red and obviously this is in breach of the regulations. A tough set of circumstances after an otherwise very committed drive by Rubens."


2008 Australian Grand Prix, Post-race
In a post-race press conference, Hamilton commented on the race: "I felt fantastic. I never thought it would have been as physically a breeze as it was. It is great preparation for Malaysia so bring it on, I am really looking forward to it." He also commended the work of his McLaren team on both his scheduled stops on laps 18 and 43 respectively:


2008 Australian Grand Prix, Post-race
Heidfeld picked up his first podium since the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix and was relieved to have kept Rosberg behind him, believing that his fellow German was fuelled longer than he actually was. He commented that Rosberg "came in earlier than expected on the same lap as myself. What we lost at the start we regained on the pit-stop, so our pit-stop crew, just did a fantastic job to just get me out ahead of [Rosberg]. Then I was lucky on the pit-stops in terms of the safety car."


2008 Australian Grand Prix, Post-race
Rosberg was delighted at his first podium finish, and was looking towards the rest of the year for similar results saying "I think we have a solid car to start the season with. I am hoping to have a nice development through the season and I think we can have a good year.


2008 Australian Grand Prix, Post-race
Also after the race, Nakajima received a ten-place grid penalty to be applicated in the following race in Malaysia, having collided with Kubica on lap 48 of the race. As this was the first race of the season, Hamilton led the Drivers' Championship with 10 points, followed by Heidfeld on 8 and Rosberg on 6.


2008 Australian Grand Prix, Post-race
Meanwhile in the Constructors' Championship, McLaren picked up 14 points thanks to Hamilton's win and Kovalainen's fifth place, thus giving them a five point lead over Williams – their highest championship position since 2004 – who, like McLaren, had both drivers finish in the points, with BMW Sauber in third on 8.


2008 Australian Manufacturers' Championship
The 2008 Australian Manufacturers' Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for car manufacturers. The championship, which was open to Group 3E Series Production Cars was the 23rd Australian Manufacturers' Championship.


2008 Australian Manufacturers' Championship, Schedule
The title was contested concurrently with the 2008 Australian Production Car Championship over a four-round series.


2008 Australian Manufacturers' Championship, Schedule
Rounds 1 & 4 were contested over two races and Rounds 2 & 3 over three races.


2008 Australian Manufacturers' Championship, Points
A manufacturer that had registered for the championship could specify up to two "nominated point scoring automobiles". Points were awarded for class placings achieved by these cars at each race on varying scales depending on the number of competitors in each class at each round.


2008 Australian Mini Challenge
The 2008 Australian Mini Challenge was the inaugural running of the Australian Mini Challenge. It began on 7 March at Eastern Creek Raceway and ended on 7 December at Oran Park Raceway.


2008 Australian Mini Challenge, Teams and drivers
The following teams and drivers contested the 2008 Australian Mini Challenge.


2008 Australian Mini Challenge, Calendar
The 2008 Australian Mini Challenge will be contested over eight rounds, starting at Eastern Creek in March and finishing at Oran Park in December.


2008 Australian Mini Challenge, Driver standings
The other results were16th: Michael Stillwell – 132 17th: Iain Sherrin – 117 18th: Robert Graham – 111 19th: David Stillwell – 108 20th: Brent Collins – 96 21st: Jason White – 96 22nd: Paul Morris – 84 23rd: Barry Sternbeck – 78 24th: Matt Neal – 78 25th: Beric Lynton – 75 26th: Mike Sherrin – 69 27th: Damien Flack – 60 28th: Tim Leahey – 54 29th: Christopher Oxley – 54 30th: Ricky Occhipinti – 54 31st: Brendon Cook – 51 32nd: Jim Sweeney – 42 33rd: Callum Ballinger – 39 34th: Tim Poulton – 30 35th: Edward Singleton – 27 36th: Kevin Miller – 18 37th: Jason Akermanis – 18 38th: Ryan Mcleod – 15 39th: Chris Wootton – 9


2008 Australian Open
The 2008 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 96th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 through 27 January 2008.


2008 Australian Open
After twenty years of playing on Rebound Ace, the courts were changed to Plexicushion, a marginally faster surface. The new surface is thinner, and therefore has lower heat retention. This decision was made in a bid to reduce the "stick" of the court and the frequency of the extreme heat policy being invoked. However, the new surface faced criticism for being too similar to DecoTurf, the surface used at the U.S. Open. Player reaction to the change of surface was generally ambivalent.


2008 Australian Open
Both Roger Federer and Serena Williams were unsuccessful in defending their 2007 titles; Federer losing to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals and Williams losing in the quarter-finals to Jelena Jankovic. Djokovic won his first Grand Slam singles title, defeating unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final; Maria Sharapova, runner-up to Williams in 2007, defeated Ana Ivanovic to win her first Australian Open title and third Grand Slam title.


2008 Australian Open
For the mixed doubles, in every game, the first team to score four points, won the game. In other words, when a deuce happened in a game, the team who won the next point won the game.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Surface change
On 30 May 2007, Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley announced that as of the 2008 Australian Open, the Rebound Ace surface that had been used since 1988 would be replaced by a newer, faster Plexicushion surface. The Rebound Ace surface had been criticized for several years, from players including Andy Roddick and Mark Philippoussis, who claimed that the "stick" of the court was a contributing factor in many players injuring themselves.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Surface change
This "stick" was a result of the thick rubber mat (10 mm) laid beneath the surface, the high heat retention because of this, and the high temperatures present during the Australian summer, which intermittently resulted in the extreme heat policy being invoked. Conversely, players such as Pete Sampras and Marat Safin put the high number of injuries down to lack of preparation from players; partly due to the fact that the tournament is held so early in the year, but also because there were so few tournaments preceding it. Rebound Ace was also chastised by Lleyton Hewitt for having an inconsistent bounce, in terms of height and pace (shock absorption); and claimed that these factors varied depending on the weather. The heat retention of the surface had also been a point of contention between players.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Surface change
In announcing the change, Tiley said Plexicushion would have a "lower rubber content than Rebound Ace, was firmer under foot and retained less heat through its thinner top layer." Tiley later said that the change of colour, from green to blue, would also benefit players and officials, although this change was quite arbitrary. The manufacturers of Rebound Ace derided the new surface, with director Paul Bull saying that, "We had an Australian icon event with a unique Australian product and now we are just going to become a clone of the U.S. Open."


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Surface change
Bull also said that the inconsistencies in pace were down to the organizers' imperative, who kept asking for the pace to be adjusted to pander for certain players, such as Hewitt. Bull, however, conceded that a change was needed; and said that the suggestion of a Rebound Ace court with a rubber mat thickness of around 5 mm was made.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Surface change
The Plexicushion surface received a relatively mixed reception from players. Lleyton Hewitt, Justine Henin and Serena Williams were all keen to endorse the new courts; with Hewitt's appraisal focused on the greater consistency of the courts. Henin called it a "good surface" but said she did not find it markedly distinguishable from Rebound Ace, saying the biggest difference was the change of colour. Williams claimed that the court was not as "bouncy" and was causing less physical strain on her feet and ankles.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Surface change
One source of criticism from players was the slower than expected pace, although many of these comments came prior to the event's commencement. Players were exposed to the new courts through other tournaments, played in advance of the Open; and practise on the new surface. Roger Federer described it as slow, with Novak Djokovic, Jelena Janković and James Blake all corroborating this opinion, albeit from experience in preliminary tournaments. Pundit and former World No. 1 Pat Rafter said it was possible that the courts would speed up in time.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Implementation of anti-corruption policing
On 21 December 2007, organizers of the event announced that the tournament would be watched under the scrutiny of anti-corruption officials. A partnership was formed with Victoria Police. This announcement came in the wake of a series of scandals to hit the sport, including World No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko coming under suspicion of match fixing; with at least a dozen other players coming forward about having been approached to influence matches in an unethical manner. Tennis Australia chief executive Steve Wood commented that, "Match-fixing and illegal gambling are a threat to the integrity of sport. We're putting our policies, procedures and programme in place to protect it."


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Implementation of anti-corruption policing
This was followed by a statement from the wider community of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and organizers of all four Grand Slams that they would review their anti-corruption policies in the future. This announcement came six days prior to the start of the Open, on 8 January 2008.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Crowd trouble
On 15 January, Day 2 of the tournament, Victoria Police had to intervene when Greek Australian supporters, following Greece's Konstantinos Economidis in his match against Chilean Fernando González, became unruly. The match, in progress at the Margaret Court Arena, was suspended for ten minutes as the police attempted stop the "offensive chanting" and eject certain fans. Approximately forty supporters, heavily outnumbered by Chilean fans, were warned of their disorderly conduct prior to the police deploying pepper spray. The police regiment was heavily outnumbered, with a BBC Radio employee commenting that, "[there were] two guys against maybe 70-80, that's not good." Tournament officials said that 3 people had been sprayed and 5 evicted; a small proportion of the Greek fans left the arena, upset at how events were transpiring and fearing for their safety.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Crowd trouble
Both players said that the trouble was not something they had witnessed before; and Economidis condemned his supporters, saying that, "It was a really nice atmosphere until this moment. I am really unhappy." Some witnesses have implicated Cypriot and Serbian supporters in the trouble.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Crowd trouble
Australian Open director, Craig Tiley, had announced in the week preceding the event that police and security forces would "impose a 'zero-tolerance' policy on anti-social behaviour". This statement appeared to be a delayed reaction to the trouble that marred the event in 2007, with Australian youths of Greek, Serbian and Croatian origins involved in mutually abusive sparring. However, the problem was much more pronounced in 2007, with violence breaking out and around 150 fans ejected.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Sexual assault
Police were called to investigate a report that a 12-year-old girl was indecently assaulted by a drunk man at the Australian Open.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Sexual assault
In a brief statement, Victoria Police said they received a report that the girl was inappropriately touched on the buttocks on Monday.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Sexual assault
"The matter was reported to police this morning and the incident is currently being investigated", the statement said. This event mirrors a series of incidents that occurred at last year's event, when several men attending the tournament were arrested for taking upskirt photographs.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Marcos Baghdatis video controversy
During the Open, a video posted on YouTube almost a year earlier made headlines in the Australian media. The video shows the 2008 fifteenth seed, Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, at a barbecue hosted by his Greek Australian fans in Melbourne in early 2007. In it, Baghdatis is holding a flare and taking part in chants against the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Melbourne's Turkish Cypriot community called for Baghdatis to be expelled from Australia, but in a statement issued through his manager, the Cypriot player said he was "supporting the interest of my country, Cyprus, while protesting against a situation that is not recognized by the United Nations".


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Serbian performance
This tournament saw strong performances from Serbian players. The men's side saw Janko Tipsarević, winner of the boys' tournament in 2001, almost cause an upset when he pushed Roger Federer to five sets in the third round, with the final score being 6–7 (5–7), 7–6 (7–1), 5–7, 6–1, 10–8 in Federer's favour. The match, which overlapped into the night session due to rain earlier in the day, took almost four-and-a-half hours to complete.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Serbian performance
Third-seed Novak Djokovic became Serbia's first Grand Slam singles title winner (Ana Ivanovic would later become that country's first Grand Slam women's singles title winner, at the 2008 French Open), and the youngest ever winner of the Australian Open, at 20 years and 250 days of age, when he defeated surprise finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final, having defeated the defending champion Federer in the semi-finals, and Australian hopeful Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets in the fourth round. Coincidentally, Djokovic would also defeat Federer in straight sets en route to his second Australian Open title, in 2011.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Serbian performance
The women's draw saw Jelena Janković, the 2001 girls' champion, and Ana Ivanovic produce notable performances to reach the semi-finals and the final, respectively. Janković saved three match points against Tamira Paszek in the first round, before defeating rising Australian player Casey Dellacqua in the fourth round. Janković then ended the title defence of Serena Williams in the quarter-finals, before losing her semi-final to Maria Sharapova.


2008 Australian Open, Notable stories, Serbian performance
Twenty-four hours after Janković's victory over Serena Williams, Ana Ivanovic recorded her first career victory against Venus Williams in her quarter-final, and went on to reach her second Grand Slam final by defeating Daniela Hantuchová in the semi-finals, having to recover from a 0–6, 0–2 deficit to do so. Ivanovic was then defeated in the final by Maria Sharapova, in a match dubbed as the "Glam Slam" final.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 1
Day 1 saw few upsets, as favourites Justine Henin, Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, Tatiana Golovin, Maria Sharapova, Shahar Pe'er, Amélie Mauresmo, Nicole Vaidišová, Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal, Nikolay Davydenko, Richard Gasquet, and Mikhail Youzhny all advanced. Jelena Janković, world No. 3, also advanced but was heavily tested by Tamira Paszek, having to win 2–6, 6–2, 12–10 in three hours, saving three match points; the match featured an exceptional 15 breaks of serve. Finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga scored his best victory to that point in a four set win over number 9 seed Andy Murray, 7–5, 6–4, 0–6, 7–6. Home favourite Alicia Molik also advanced into the second round.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 2
Favourites Roger Federer, Tomáš Berdych, James Blake, Novak Djokovic, Fernando González, Lleyton Hewitt, Marcos Baghdatis, David Nalbandian, David Ferrer, Marat Safin, Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic, Anna Chakvetadze, Daniela Hantuchová, and Svetlana Kuznetsova all advanced. Other seeded players such as Li Na, Nadia Petrova, Sania Mirza, Agnieszka Radwańska, Dmitry Tursunov, and Juan Carlos Ferrero also advanced. Sofia Arvidsson caused the upset on the women's side, as she defeated No. 10 Marion Bartoli 6–7, 6–4, 6–3, and Dinara Safina went down to qualifier Sabine Lisicki. On the men's side, the upset of the day came when Dutch qualifier Robin Haase defeated No. 17 Ivan Ljubičić 6–7, 6–3, 6–0, 7–6. Day 2 saw the completion of all the remaining first round matches.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 3
The Australian crowd were treated to an upset from one of their own as Casey Dellacqua sent No. 15 seed Patty Schnyder crashing out in the women's draw, while No. 13 Tatiana Golovin and No. 19 Sybille Bammer also struggled, losing to Aravane Rezaï and Hsieh Su-wei respectively. Maria Sharapova defeated comeback queen Lindsay Davenport in somewhat easy fashion 6–1, 6–3, and Justine Henin, Serena Williams, and Jelena Janković also advanced with wins. Joining them were numerous lower seeds including Elena Dementieva, Nicole Vaidišová and Amélie Mauresmo.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 3
In the men's draw, Mardy Fish dominated No. 11 seed Tommy Robredo to send him crashing out 6–1, 6–2, 6–3, while Stanislas Wawrinka retired against Marc Gicquel down two sets to one. Rafael Nadal, Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Roddick and Richard Gasquet all progressed in straight sets, whilst Mikhail Youzhny was tested before eventually winning 4–6, 7–5, 6–3, 7–6. The doubles competition also began on Day 3.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 4
In the pick of the second round matches, former finalist Marcos Baghdatis dispatched former champion Marat Safin in five sets; 6–4, 6–4, 2–6, 3–6, 6–2. Seeds Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Fernando González, David Nalbandian, Tomáš Berdych and James Blake all came through unscathed; with Federer dropping only 3 games against Fabrice Santoro. Nineteenth seed and home favorite Lleyton Hewitt came through in typically gritty fashion, defeating Denis Istomin 7–6, 6–3, 5–7, 6–1. On the women's side, Ana Ivanovic defeated Tathiana Garbin 6–0, 6–3 in the night match preceding Baghdatis vs. Safin. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anna Chakvetadze, Venus Williams, Daniela Hantuchová, Nadia Petrova and form player Li Na all navigated their way into the third round too.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 4
The total attendance figure for Day 4 was 62,885, setting a new world record for a combined day/night attendance at a Grand Slam event. The previous record was 61,083, set during the 2007 U.S. Open.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 5
The first match of the night session on the Rod Laver Arena saw local player Casey Dellacqua, who had previously never progressed beyond the first round at the Australian Open, defeat former champion Amélie Mauresmo 3–6, 6–4, 6–4. Justine Henin struggled to get to grips with Francesca Schiavone before winning; and Nicole Vaidišová and Serena Williams set up an intriguing fourth round match, a re-match of the previous year's semi-final.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 5
In the last match of the day, Philipp Kohlschreiber, the 29th seed of Germany, defeated the 6th seeded Andy Roddick in 232 minutes: 6–4, 3–6, 7–6, 6–7, 8–6; with the match reaching its conclusion past 02:00. Roddick was visibly perturbed during the match, which resulted in his earliest exit at the Australian Open since 2002. During the match, Roddick called umpire Emmanuel Joseph an "idiot" and received a retrospective fine of $500 for racquet abuse. Kohlschreiber entered the tournament in good form, having won the 2008 Heineken Open.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 5
Rafael Nadal faced world number 33 Gilles Simon, and had to save six set points in the first set. Simon squandered the first three to unforced errors, but it was Nadal who produced two aces and a drop shot to save himself at 4–5, 0-40. Paul-Henri Mathieu, under the stewardship of Mats Wilander, progressed after surviving a five-set thriller versus Stefan Koubek. Nikolay Davydenko, Richard Gasquet, Mikhail Youzhny, Jarkko Nieminen and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also advanced.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 6
Day 6 in Melbourne was plagued by rain and consequently matches could only take place on the indoor courts. In the women's competition, Ana Ivanovic made light work of Katarina Srebotnik whilst Venus Williams was more sternly tested by Sania Mirza. However, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anna Chakvetadze both saw their tournaments ended in the third round by Agnieszka Radwańska and Maria Kirilenko respectively.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 6
The men's competition featured two prolonged five-set matches. In the first, No. 1 seed Roger Federer was pushed to the limit by Janko Tipsarević before triumphing; 6–7, 7–6, 5–7, 6–1, 10–8 in 267 minutes. The second featured Australian hopeful Lleyton Hewitt, who defeated Marcos Baghdatis 4–6, 7–5, 7–5, 6–7, 6–3 in a match that provoked discussion about the validity of night matches; the players did not finish play until 04:34 am the next day, 282 minutes since it started at 11:52 pm. Significantly, the match extended further into the evening than any other in the history of the Australian Open.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 6
The Federer-Tipsarević match, which lasted 267 minutes, overlapped into the night session which it normally starts at 7:30 pm and this delayed the commencement of the women's singles match between Venus Williams and Sania Mirza until 10:00 pm. Rules had previously been put in place so that a men's singles match would not start if other matches had played past 11:00 pm; however, with the home crowd growing anxious, the organizers decided to go ahead with the Hewitt vs. Baghdatis match.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 6
In other matches, the 2007 finalist Fernando González made an early exit to Marin Čilić; Novak Djokovic, James Blake and Tomáš Berdych all progressed as well.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 7
Nikolay Davydenko became the highest-seeded male player out so far, losing to fellow Russian Mikhail Youzhny, setting up a quarter-final tie with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who dumped out No.8-seeded compatriot Richard Gasquet 6–2, 6–7, 7–6, 6–3 in just over three hours. Jarkko Nieminen also advanced to the last eight. Maria Sharapova easily beat Elena Dementieva and she joined Justine Henin, Serena Williams and Jelena Janković, who eliminated home favourite Casey Dellacqua, in the quarter finals. Li Na said goodbye to the tournament, losing to qualifier Marta Domachowska. Rafael Nadal advanced to the quarter finals as opponent Paul-Henri Mathieu retired with an injured left calf muscle; the second-ranked Spaniard was ahead 6–4, 3–0. David Nalbandian, the number 10 seed also suffered a straight-sets defeat at the hands of former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 7
World number 4 Jelena Janković was handed a US$2,000 fine after allegedly receiving coaching from her mother, Snežana, during her third round match with Virginie Razzano of France. The game took place on Day 3 of the event. Umpire Maria Alves spotted the infringement during the match, and although unable to understand what had been communicated, dealt Janković a code violation for illegal coaching.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 7
Janković denied the allegation, saying that she simply shouted 'C'mon' in Serbian. The practice of coaching during a match is banned at all WTA and Grand Slam events.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 7
Maria Sharapova was fined the same amount at the 2007 Australian Open, also for receiving illegal coaching, with the same umpire, Maria Alves, in the chair.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 8
Novak Djokovic powered his way into the quarter-finals, defeating Lleyton Hewitt 7–5, 6–3, 6–3 in a fourth-round clash. Roger Federer finished Tomáš Berdych's tournament in 1 hour and 59 minutes, 6–4, 7–6, 6–3. He faces James Blake next, who scored a 6–3, 6–4, 6–4 win over 19-year-old Croat Marin Čilić; a victory which saw him advance past the fourth round here for the first time. Venus Williams fought back twice from service breaks in the first set to secure a place in the quarter-finals; with a 6–4, 6–4 win over Marta Domachowska. She next faces No. 4 seed Ana Ivanovic, who put together a 6–1, 7–6 win over Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki. No. 9 seed Daniela Hantuchová beat No. 27 Maria Kirilenko 1–6, 6–4, 6–4 and will next play Poland's Agnieszka Radwańska, who upset No. 14 Nadia Petrova 1–6, 7–5, 6–0.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 9
Jelena Janković survived a straight set win over defending champion Serena Williams, making the semifinals of her 3rd different major. Rafael Nadal won his quarter final match against Jarkko Nieminen in straight sets, putting him into his first semi-final at the Australian Open. Maria Sharapova defeated No. 1 seed Justine Henin in a repeat of the 2007 WTA Tour Championships final. On this occasion, Henin was unable to win even a set as Sharapova eased to victory; 6–4, 6–0. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won his match against 14th seed Mikhail Youzhny and booked his spot in the semi-finals.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 9
In a day that was relatively free of controversy on the court, several media outlets focused on allegedly unsavoury aspects off it. Sharapova's father, Yuri Sharapov, came under intense scrutiny from Australian media after he made a throat-slashing gesture shortly after his daughter's match against the world No. 1 Justine Henin. Sharapova had earlier joked that her father's camouflage hoodie made him look like "an assassin". The WTA claimed that the gesture was simply a joke between the pair, pertaining to this comment.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 10
Novak Djokovic defeated David Ferrer 6–0, 6–3, 7–5 in a closely fought third set, which advanced him to his fourth consecutive Grand Slam semi-final. Ana Ivanovic progressed to her first Australian Open semi-final after defeating Venus Williams 7–6, 6–4, a result which marked Ivanovic's first triumph over either of the Williams sisters. She set up a tie with Daniela Hantuchová, who advanced to her first Grand Slam semi-final after dispatching Agnieszka Radwańska 6–2, 6–2. Roger Federer defeated James Blake 7–5, 7–6, 6–4 in just over 2 hours. Federer's progression marked his 15th consecutive Grand Slam semi-final, a record.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 11
In the first women's semi-final match, fifth seeded Russian Maria Sharapova defeated third seeded Serbian Jelena Janković in a two sets, 6–3, 6–1 to clinch the first spot in the finals. Janković later conceded that she "wanted to withdraw", but played on for the crowd's benefit. Fourth seeded Ana Ivanovic also progressed to the final after defeating Daniela Hantuchová in three sets, 0–6, 6–3, 6–4. Ivanovic had lost the first eight games of the match before rectifying her game. However, Hantuchová was critical of Ivanovic's tactics during the latter stages of the match.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 11
Hantuchová claimed that Ivanovic resorted to gamesmanship by shuffling her feet prior to her serve, thereby causing a distraction. Ivanovic said that any possible noise was a result of the new court surface; and tried to offer an explanation of Hantuchová's motives, saying, "Maybe she was just trying to pick on something, to get upset." Unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated second seeded Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the first men's semifinal, in straight sets, 6–2, 6–3, 6–2 in less than 2 hours. Journalists expressed shock, not only at the victory, but at the comprehensive manner in which the nascent Tsonga won it. Tsonga hit a total of 49 winners to Nadal's 13 and served imperiously: Nadal was unable to force a break point until the third set.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 12
In the second men's semi-final, between No. 1 Roger Federer and No. 3 Novak Djokovic, Djokovic won in just over 2 hours; completing the victory in straight sets, 7–5, 6–3, 7–6 to reach the second grand slam final of his career. This broke Federer's record run of appearing in 10 consecutive grand slam finals. In the women's doubles final, Alyona and Kateryna Bondarenko beat Victoria Azarenka and Shahar Pe'er 2–6, 6–1, 6–4 to win their first Grand Slam title.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 13
In what was dubbed the "Glam Slam" final, Maria Sharapova of Russia won the Women's 2008 Australian Open over Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in straight sets; 7–5, 6–3. It was Sharapova's third Grand Slam title. Sharapova also achieved the feat of not dropping a set or playing a tiebreak the entire tournament, after she was heavily defeated by Serena Williams in the 2007 final. In the men's doubles final, the Israeli pair, Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram beat Arnaud Clément and Michaël Llodra of France 7–5, 7–6 to win their first Grand Slam title.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 13
The juniors competition also reached its conclusion on Day 13. Australian Bernard Tomic defeated Taiwanese player Yang Tsung-Hua; 4–6, 7–6, 6–0 to win the boys' event. Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands defeated the other Australian hopeful, Jessica Moore, 6–3, 6–4 to claim the girls' singles crown. In the women's wheelchair event, Esther Vergeer won her third consecutive title, beating fellow Dutchwoman Korie Homan 6–4, 6–3. Shingo Kunieda won his fourth slam in a row in the men's wheelchair competition, defeating former champion Michael Jeremiasz 6–1, 6–4.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 14
Third seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France in four sets; 4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 7–6, becoming the first Serbian player to win a Grand-Slam singles title.


2008 Australian Open, Day by day, Day 14
Sun Tiantian of China and Nenad Zimonjić of Serbia were crowned the 2008 Mixed Doubles champions after defeating Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi of India in straight sets; 7–6, 6–4.


2008 Australian Open, Seniors, Men's Doubles
Jonathan Erlich /  Andy Ram defeated  Arnaud Clément /  Michaël Llodra, 7–5, 7–6(7–4)


2008 Australian Open, Seniors, Women's Doubles
Alona Bondarenko /  Kateryna Bondarenko defeated   Victoria Azarenka /  Shahar Pe'er, 2–6, 6–1, 6–4


2008 Australian Open, Seniors, Mixed Doubles
Sun Tiantian /  Nenad Zimonjić defeated  Sania Mirza /  Mahesh Bhupathi, 7–6(7–4), 6–4


2008 Australian Open, Juniors, Boys' Doubles
Hsieh Cheng-peng /  Yang Tsung-hua defeated  Vasek Pospisil /  César Ramírez, 3–6, 7–5, [10]–[5]


2008 Australian Open, Juniors, Girls' Doubles
Ksenia Lykina /  Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated  Elena Bogdan /  Misaki Doi, 6–0, 6–4


2008 Australian Open, Wheelchair, Wheelchair Men's Doubles
Shingo Kunieda /  Satoshi Saida defeated Robin Ammerlaan /  Ronald Vink, 6–4, 6–3


2008 Australian Open, Wheelchair, Wheelchair Women's Doubles
Jiske Griffioen /  Esther Vergeer defeated  Korie Homan /  Sharon Walraven, 6–3, 6–1


2008 Australian Open, Wheelchair, Wheelchair Quad Doubles
Nicholas Taylor /  David Wagner defeated  Sarah Hunter /  Peter Norfolk, 5–7, 6–0, [10]–[3]


2008 Australian Open, Seeds
On the women's side of the draw, all of the world's top thirty-two players were present; whereas in the men's draw Tommy Haas and Guillermo Cañas were both forced to withdraw due to injury. On the date that the seeds were announced, 11 January 2008, Haas was No. 12 in the world and Cañas No. 17.


2008 Australian Open – Boys' Doubles
Hsieh Cheng-peng and Yang Tsung-hua won the title by defeating Vasek Pospisil and César Ramírez 3–6, 7–5, [10–5] in the final.


2008 Australian Open – Boys' Singles
Bernard Tomic won in the final 4–6, 7–6(7–5), 6–0, against Yang Tsung-hua and claimed the title, becoming the youngest player to win a grand slam title.


2008 Australian Open – Boys' Singles
Brydan Klein was the defending champion, but did not compete in the juniors event that year.


2008 Australian Open – Girls' Doubles
Ksenia Lykina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won the title, defeating Elena Bogdan and Misaki Doi in the final, 6–0, 6–4


2008 Australian Open – Girls' Singles
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was the two-time defending champion, having won the junior Australian Open titles in 2006 and 2007, but lost in the quarterfinals to Simona Halep.


2008 Australian Open – Men's Doubles
Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan were the defending champions, but lost in the quarterfinals to Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles.


2008 Australian Open – Men's Doubles
Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram won in the final 7–5, 7–6(4), against Arnaud Clément and Michaël Llodra.


2008 Australian Open – Men's Singles
Novak Djokovic defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final 4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 7–6(7–2) to win the Men's Singles tennis title at the 2008 Australian Open. It was the first major title of Djokovic's career, the first of a record nine Australian Open titles, and the first of a record 20 Grand Slam titles. Djokovic became the first Serbian man to win a major singles title. It was the first Grand Slam final since the 2005 Australian Open that did not feature either Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, who were beaten by Djokovic and Tsonga, respectively, in the semifinals. Alongside second-seeded Nadal, Tsonga (unseeded in this tournament) defeated three more seeds en route to the final, including ninth-seed Andy Murray.


2008 Australian Open – Men's Singles
Federer was the two-time defending champion, but was defeated by Djokovic in the semifinals. This event marked the end of Federer's record 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals (of which he won 8). Still, he became the first man to reach 15 consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinals (streak starting at the 2004 Wimbledon Championships), surpassing Roy Emerson and Ivan Lendl. This was the only Grand Slam tournament where Federer failed to reach the final between the 2005 Wimbledon Championships and the 2010 Australian Open, a span of 19 Grand Slam tournaments. He would go on to reach the next 8 Grand Slam finals (winning four of them) before losing in the quarterfinals at the 2010 French Open.


2008 Australian Open – Men's Singles Qualifying
This article displays the qualifying draw for the Men's singles at the 2008 Australian Open.


2008 Australian Open – Mixed Doubles
Sun Tiantian and Nenad Zimonjić won the mixed doubles title at the 2008 Australian Open, defeating Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi in the final 7–6(7–4), 6–4.


2008 Australian Open – Mixed Doubles
Elena Likhovtseva and Daniel Nestor were the defending champions, but Likhovtseva did not participate in this Australian Open. Nestor partnered with Zheng Jie, but lost in the first round to Chan Yung-jan and Eric Butorac.


2008 Australian Open – Wheelchair Men's Doubles
The wheelchair men's doubles draw for the 2008 Australian Open.


2008 Australian Open – Wheelchair Men's Singles
The wheelchair men's singles draw for the 2008 Australian Open.


2008 Australian Open – Wheelchair Quad Doubles
The wheelchair quad singles draw for the 2008 Australian Open.


2008 Australian Open – Wheelchair Quad Singles
The wheelchair quad singles draw for the 2008 Australian Open.


2008 Australian Open – Wheelchair Women's Doubles
The wheelchair women's doubles draw for the 2008 Australian Open.


2008 Australian Open – Wheelchair Women's Singles
The wheelchair women's singles draw for the 2008 Australian Open. Esther Vergeer retained her title.


2008 Australian Open – Women's Doubles
Cara Black and Liezel Huber were the defending champions, but lost in the quarterfinals to sisters Alona Bondarenko and Kateryna Bondarenko.


2008 Australian Open – Women's Doubles
The sisters won in the final 2–6, 6–1, 6–4, against Victoria Azarenka and Shahar Pe'er.


2008 Australian Open – Women's Singles
Maria Sharapova defeated Ana Ivanovic 7–5, 6–3, in the final to win the Women's Singles tennis title at the 2008 Australian Open, without losing a set the entire tournament, or facing a tiebreak in any set throughout the tournament. This was her third Grand Slam singles title and her first and only Australian Open. She was also the first Russian woman to win this tournament. Ivanovic lost in a Grand Slam final for the second time, though she would eventually win the French Open a few months later.


2008 Australian Open – Women's Singles
Serena Williams was the defending champion, but was defeated in the quarterfinals by Jelena Janković.


2008 Australian Open – Women's Singles
Justine Henin, whose consecutive streak of 33 match wins dated back at the 2007 Rogers Cup, lost in the quarterfinals to Sharapova.


2008 Australian Open – Women's Singles
This was the first Australian Open appearance for future 2018 champion Caroline Wozniacki, she lost to eventual finalist Ivanovic in the fourth round.


2008 Australian Open – Women's Singles Qualifying
This article displays the qualifying draw for the Women's singles at the 2008 Australian Open.


2008 Australian Production Car Championship
The 2008 Australian Production Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing title for drivers of Group 3E Series Production Cars. The title was awarded in conjunction with the 2008 Australian Manufacturers' Championship and was the 15th Australian Production Car Championship.


2008 Australian Production Car Championship
The championship was won by Colin Osborne, driving a Toyota Celica.


2008 Australian Production Car Championship, Schedule
The championship was contested over a four-round series with all rounds run concurrently with those of the 2008 Australian Manufacturers' Championship.


2008 Australian Production Car Championship, Points
Points were awarded to registered drivers for class placings achieved at each race on varying scales depending on the number of competitors in each class at each round.


2008 Australian Production Car Championship, Points
For Rounds 1 & 4, co-drivers, where nominated, were eligible to score points so long as they were registered for the Championship.


2008 Australian Rally Championship
The 2008 Australian Rally Championship Season is the 41st Season in the history of the competition. This year once again there will be 6 classes in the competition and over 50 official drivers and 48 teams.


2008 Australian Rally Championship, The Rallies
The 2008 Season has once again featured a total of 6 Rallies across Australia starting at the QUIT Rally until the final event at Coffs Harbour.


2008 Australian Rally Championship, Teams & Drivers
Officially, this season, there will be only one factory-built team competing in the competition. This will be the TTR (Toyota Team Racing) Team. They win the Manufacturer's title for the 3rd consecutive season by default, this is due to the Ford-based Focus RS team of last season pulling out and instead deciding to field a Subaru and changed their Name to PIRTEK LWR Rally Team.


2008 Australian Rally Championship, Teams & Drivers
There are other manufacturers competing as Privateer teams which don't represent the manufacturer unlike the TTR team which represents Toyota, such as the Evans Motorsport Team which uses a Subaru but isn't backed by the manufacturer. All in all, there will be over 50 drivers competing across numerous classes. The Super 2000 class will once again be the Top-Category which is followed by the Group N and the Privateers competition which sees privately owned teams competing.


2008 Australian Rally Championship, Broadcasting
The series will once again be broadcast on the Australian channel, Channel 10 which will have a 1 hour magazine-type show on Sunday afternoons, on the same week as the events are actually taking place and concluding. All of the events will be broadcast between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m on Sunday.


2008 Australian Sports Sedan Series
The 2008 Kerrick Sports Sedan series  was the 18th running of a national series for Sports Sedans in Australia. It began on 17 May 2008 at Mallala Motor Sport Park and ended on 30 November at Sandown Raceway after fifteen races.


2008 Australian Sports Sedan Series
The series was won by Darren Hossack. The battle between Hossack, driving the John Gourlay owned and still under development new Audi A4 and Tony Ricciardello and his family run team with their well sorted and multiple-championship winning Alfa Romeo GTV would go down to the final race of the series, with Hossack winning the race and the title. For Hossack it was the rare achievement of winning two Australian motor racing series in the same calendar year having previously won the 2008 Australian Superkart Championship.


2008 Australian Sports Sedan Series, Eligibile automobiles
The following automobiles were eligible to compete in the series:


2008 Australian Sports Sedan Series, Teams and drivers
The following drivers competed in the 2008 Kerrick Sports Sedan Series.


2008 Australian Sports Sedan Series, Race calendar
The 2008 Kerrick Sports Sedan Series was contested over five rounds  in three different Australian states with each round contested over three races.


2008 Australian Sports Sedan Series, Points system
Points were awarded 20–17–15–13–12–11–10–9–8–7–6–5–4–3–2 based on the top fifteen positions in each race with all other classified finishers awarded 1 point. There were two bonus points allocated for first position in Qualifying  at each round.


2008 Australian Sports Sedan Series, Points system
To be eligible to score points, competitors were required to register with the series manager.


2008 Australian Sports Sedan Series, Series standings
Note: First position in Qualifying at each round is shown in bold in the above table.


2008 Australian Superkart Championship
The 2008 Australian Superkart Championship covers national level Superkart racing in Australia during 2008.


2008 Australian Superkart Championship, Featured events, Australian Superkart Championship
The 2008 Australian Superkart Championship will be the 20th running of the national championships for Superkarts. It will begin on 13 July 2008 at Eastern Creek Raceway and end on 2 November at Mallala Motor Sport Park after eight races.


2008 Australian Superkart Championship, Featured events, Australian Superkart Championship
It will be contested for three engine based classes, 250 cc International (twin cylinder engines), 250 cc National (single-cylinder engines) and 125 cc.


2008 Australian Superkart Championship, Featured events, Non-Gearbox Superkart Championship
The Australian championship for non-gearbox Superkarts will be held at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit on 10 August and will be consisted by the Rotax Max family of classes; two weight based classes Light and Heavy and Junior Max for competitors under the age of 17.


2008 Australian Superkart Championship, Featured events, V8 Supercar
Superkarts will compete as a support category for V8 Supercars for the first time at the series second round, to be held at Eastern Creek on 9 March.


2008 Australian Superkart Championship, Teams and drivers, Gearbox
The following drivers competed in the 2008 Australian Superkart Championship. The series consisted of two rounds, with four races at each meeting.


2008 Australian Superkart Championship, Teams and drivers, Non-gearbox
The following drivers competed in the 2008 non-gearbox Australian Superkart Championship. The series consisted of a single round, with four races.


2008 Australian Superkart Championship, Results and standings, Gearbox race calendar
The 2008 Australian Superkart Championship season consisted of two rounds. Four races were held at both race meetings.


2008 Australian Superkart Championship, Results and standings, Drivers Championship
Points were awarded 20-17-15-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 based on the top fifteen race positions in first three races of each round with one point for each other finisher. The fourth race of each round, which is longer than the others (eight laps vs five laps) awarded points for the top twenty race positions at 25-22-20-18-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 with one point for each other finisher.


2008 Australian Swimming Championships
The 2008 Telstra Australian Swimming Championships were held at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia from 22–29 March 2008. The championships were used as the Australian trials for the 2008 Olympic Games squad.


2008 Australian Swimming Championships
Like all previous Australian swimming trials, the championships program mirrored the 2008 Olympic swimming program with the addition of the non-Olympic events – 50 m backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly; 800 m freestyle (men) and 1500 m freestyle (women).


2008 Australian Swimming Championships, Results
Highlighted swimmers achieved the qualification conditions to be included in the Olympic team in that respective event.


2008 Australian Swimming Championships, Olympic team news
Due to strong performances, two additional members were added to the Australian Olympic swim team: Nick Ffrost and Felicity Galvez both finished seventh in their 200 m freestyle events. Additionally, Galvez finished third in the women's 200 m butterfly. It is assumed Galvez will swim the heat of the 4×100 m medley relay with Libby Trickett likely to swim the freestyle leg, elevating Jessicah Schipper into the butterfly position.


2008 Australian Swimming Championships, Olympic team news
This however has created controversy with freestyler Andrew Mewing appealing his non-selection after finishing 8th with an A qualifying time, whilst Galvez was selected via a B qualifying time, that ranked her 9th in the 200 m freestyle. Mewing lost his appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Adam Lucas finished second in both the 200 m and 400 m individual medley events, but was not selected because he swam a B qualifying time, rather than an A qualifying time. These are the only events on the Australian roster that remain without a second qualifier.


2008 Australian Swimming Championships, Olympic team news
Melissa Gorman failed to meet the qualification time for the 800 m freestyle at the championships themselves, however was included in the team to swim this event after qualifying for the 10 km marathon swimming event.


2008 Australian Swimming Championships, Olympic team news
During the early hours of 30 March 2008, Nick D'Arcy was involved in an altercation with a fellow Australia swimmer, Simon Cowley. Cowley was a winner of three gold medals at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. D'Arcy is now facing possible expulsion from the 2008 Olympic team. In his own decision, D'Arcy withdrew from the upcoming 2008 World Short Course Championships. He has been charged with assault occasioning grievous bodily harm.


2008 Australian federal budget
The 2008 Australian federal budget for the Australian financial year ended 30 June 2009 was presented on 13 May 2008 by the Treasurer of Australia, Wayne Swan, the first federal budget presented by Swan, and the first budget of the first Rudd Government.


2008 Australian federal budget
It had a particular emphasis on family welfare (expansive tax cuts and a lift in the threshold of the Medicare levy surcharge) and capital investment (national accreditation) funds. Swan described it as "a A$55 billion Working Families Support Package" that "strengthens Australia's economic foundations, and delivers for working families under pressure" from increasingly high interest rates.


2008 Australian federal budget, Major policies
Total spending was cut, following on from gradual cuts of nearly 2% of GDP over the decade of the Howard government. Changes to taxation prompted then Shadow Treasurer Malcolm Turnbull to claim the increased taxation will contribute to inflation, but Swan argued that the tax will affect only high income-earners, dispelling any "custodian" line of attack. Heavy spending by the states had been inefficient at managing past underinvestment on infrastructure, and "the conduct of expansionary monetary policies will be less complicated" as a result of the new reform agenda to avoid (supply-side) case-mix funding of the health care and vocational training sectors of the economy.


2008 Australian federal budget, Major policies
A new $3 billion tax increase on alcopop drinks was designed to slow down a projected increase (from the Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, tabling Treasury advice) in alcopop sales by 43 million bottles, curtailing binge drinking. However, the opposition described the increase as merely a revenue raiser, with Shadow Health Minister Joe Hockey arguing that consumers of alcopop will switch to other drinks, such as champagne, and binge drinking will not decrease. In response, the Prime Minister told Federal Parliament that the tax increase had wide support in medical and alcohol support services.


2008 Australian federal budget, Major policies
Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson counter-offered with a $1.8 billion petrol tax cut, reversing years of policy opposing lowering petrol taxes. The Opposition pledged to block the alcopop tax in the Senate, which it will control until July 2008, and has also pledged to block a move to remove a surcharge tax trap for people who fail to take out health cover, which, it claims, will drive up insurance premiums and steer people away from private healthcare.


2008 Australian federal budget, Major policies
An increase to the luxury car tax was defeated in the Senate, with Steve Fielding of Family First joining the coalition in blocking the budget legislation. It had been supported by the government, the Australian Greens, and independent Nick Xenophon. It was later passed by all non-coalition Senators after amendments were made.


2008 Australian federal budget, Reception
The World Wildlife Fund of Australia has criticised the ambiguity of the Budget's timeline for developing coal pollution mitigation technology, while the Australian Conservation Foundation has urged the government to reconsider taxes that promote the creation of pollution. However, multinational real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle lauded the $90 million Green Building Fund, which subsidies half the cost of fitting office blocks with environmentally friendly design features.


2008 Australian federal budget, Reception
Senior citizens representative group Seniors Australia criticised the budget for not increasing the seniors pension, and Carers Australia expressed dismay over the lack of change for carer payments. A day after the Budget's release, the government promised a future inquiry into carer and pensioner payments and asserted that the pensions will increase after a specialised review.


2008 Australian football code crowds
Australia is home to four professional football codes. This is a comprehensive list of crowd figures for Australian football codes in 2008. It includes several different competitions and matches from Australian rules football, rugby league, football (soccer) and rugby union (international rules football is a code of football played by Australian rules footballers). Sydney and Brisbane have teams represented in all four codes. Hobart and Darwin are Australia's only capital cities without a professional football team.


2008 Australian football code crowds, Included competitions, National competitions
Several football codes have national (domestic) competitions in Australia, the following are taken into consideration:


2008 Australian football code crowds, Included competitions, National competitions
Two of these leagues, specifically the NRL and A-League, have one team in New Zealand. Attendance figures for the New Zealand teams are not taken into account in the figures on this page.


2008 Australian football code crowds, Included competitions, National competitions
Note that the Australian Rugby Championship folded at the end of 2007.


2008 Australian football code crowds, Included competitions, Other competitions
Other competitions, such as international and representative competitions, included are:


2008 Australian football code crowds, Included competitions, Other competitions
Note: For these competitions, only figures for games that take place in Australia are taken into account


2008 Australian football code crowds, Included competitions, Non-Competition Games
Some Non-competition matches (such as friendly and exhibition matches) are also included:


2008 Australian football code crowds, Included competitions, Non-Competition Games
Note: this list will be updated as more games are scheduled.


2008 Australian football code crowds, Included competitions, Competitions not included
There are several notable semi-professional regional and state based competitions which draw notable attendances and charge an entry fee that are not listed here. These are worth mentioning as some of their attendances rival those of national competitions and compete for spectator interest.


2008 Australian football code crowds, Included competitions, Competitions not included
As the attendance figures for some of these competitions can be difficult to obtain (many don't publish season figures and some play matches as curtain raisers to other events), they have not been included in the official lists.


2008 Australian football code crowds, Attendances by Code
In order to directly compare sports, the total attendances for each major code are listed here. The colour-coding of the different codes is used throughout the article.


2008 Australian football code crowds, Attendances by Code
Note that only the competitions that appear on this page excluding those specifically not included are considered, there are many other (generally smaller) competitions, leagues and matches that take place for all of the football codes, but these are not included. The following are included:


2008 Australian football code crowds, Attendances by League
Some codes have multiple competitions, several competitions are compared here.


2008 Australian football code crowds, Attendances by Team
Attendances that specific teams pull for their home games are listed here.


2008 Australian football code crowds, Attendances by Match
Attendances for single matches are listed here. Note that not all matches are necessarily included.


2008 Australian football code crowds, Attendances by Match, Single Matches
These are once-off matches, that aren't part of any regular league competition.


2008 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix
The 2008 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix was the sixteenth round of the 2008 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 3–5 October 2008 at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.


2008 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix, Race report
The premier class MotoGP race was won by Casey Stoner from pole position. Stoner rode a lights to flag victory ahead of a fast and charging Valentino Rossi who started the race from 12th position on the grid. Nicky Hayden rounded out the podium finishing in a respectable third place.


2008 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix, Race report
In the early stages of the race, Stoner and Hayden had a battle that lasted many laps with the two pulling away from the chasing pack, trading fast laps between them. Casey Stoner gradually began to pull away as Hayden's tyres appeared to wear out slightly. Meanwhile, Rossi was charging through the midfield, getting up to 8th position after only the first lap. Rossi quickly disposed of a number of riders in the first few laps, but lost vital time while attempting to overtake his teammate Jorge Lorenzo and former SBK champion James Toseland. Rossi was setting fast lap times but his entertaining battle with these two riders meant he was losing time, and all chances of catching Stoner and Hayden who were riding off into the distance were slowly fading.


2008 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix, Race report
After losing the front end going in MG Corner just after Lukey Heights, Rossi lost yet more time. After a few laps he managed to get into the tow behind Toseland and past him going into the long sweeping turn 1. Toseland had no reply and Rossi had his eyes firmly set on catching the leaders. Rossi caught Hayden with only 2 laps to go, but Stoner was simply too far already to be challenged for the win.


2008 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix, Race report
By this stage of the race, Hayden's rear tyre was very worn as he had not conserved it in the early stages of the race. Rossi pulled a textbook move going into turn 1 on the last lap, Hayden lost ground from here and could not get close enough to attempt to retake second place.


2008 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix, Championship standings after the race (MotoGP)
Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round sixteen has concluded.


2008 Austrian Figure Skating Championships
The 2008 Austrian Figure Skating Championships (German: Österreichischen Staatsmeisterschaften im Eiskunstlauf 2008) took place between 14 and 16 December 2007 in Sankt Pölten. Skaters competed in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, and ice dancing. The results were used to choose the Austrian teams to the 2008 World Championships and the 2008 European Championships.


2008 Austrian Open (tennis)
The 2008 Austrian Open was a men's tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 38th edition of the Austrian Open, and was part of the International Series Gold of the 2008 ATP Tour. It took place at the Kitzbühel Sportpark Tennis Stadium in Kitzbühel, Austria, from 14 July through 20 July 2008.


2008 Austrian Open (tennis)
The singles field featured Bergamo Challenger winner and Hamburg Masters semifinalist Andreas Seppi, Houston and Munich doubles champion and Wimbledon semifinalist Rainer Schüttler, and Prostějov Challenger titlist and Stuttgart semifinalist Agustín Calleri. Other seeds were 2007 Kitzbühel singles runner-up and doubles champion Potito Starace, Stuttgart semifinalist Eduardo Schwank, Jürgen Melzer, Juan Martín del Potro and Olivier Rochus.


2008 Austrian Open (tennis), Finals, Doubles
James Cerretani /  Victor Hănescu defeated  Lucas Arnold Ker /  Olivier Rochus 6–3, 7–5


2008 Austrian Open – Doubles
Luis Horna and Potito Starace were the defending champions, but lost in the first round to James Cerretani and Victor Hănescu.


2008 Austrian Open – Doubles
James Cerretani and Victor Hănescu won in the final 6–3, 7–5, against Lucas Arnold Ker and Olivier Rochus.


2008 Austrian Open – Singles
Juan Mónaco was the defending champion, but chose not to participate that year.


2008 Austrian Open – Singles
Juan Martín del Potro won in the final 6–2, 6–1, against Jürgen Melzer.


2008 Austrian government formation
This article covers the formation of the Faymann cabinet following the 2008 parliamentary election in Austria.


2008 Austrian government formation, Background
President Heinz Fischer gave Werner Faymann the mandate to form a government on 8 October 2008. At the same time, Pröll stated he was still seeking talks with all other parties.


2008 Austrian government formation, Background
In the light of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Pröll on 13 October 2008 called for an ÖVP leadership meeting on 14 October 2008 to decide to start coalition negotiations with the SPÖ. Before the leadership meeting, all five parliamentary parties met for a so-called Österreich-Gespräch ("Austria talk") proposed by the ÖVP, in which they tried to find common ground on possible legislative issues which would require a two-thirds majority; the parties' leaders talked mostly about the global financial crisis and agreed to continue the Österreich-Gespräch at a later date. The ÖVP leadership meeting voted 22 to 4 in favour of opening coalition negotiations, and the first main meeting was held on 20 October 2008. Immediately afterwards, discussion in the negotiation teams started. The composition of the negotiation teams was announced on 16 October 2008:


2008 Austrian government formation, Background
Reportedly, the SPÖ was seeking to trade the justice ministry for the health ministry, with justice minister Berger returning to the European Parliament and Upper Austrian SPÖ leader Erich Haider becoming health minister. Other rumours included Bures becoming infrastructure minister and trade unionist Wolfgang Katzian becoming social minister. Darabos and Schmied were seen as retaining their offices, with Darabos reportedly waiting for the right time to take over as governor of Burgenland from Niessl. Pröll was seen as certain to take over a more high-profile ministry (finance, interior or foreign affairs) with foreign affairs seen as the most likely.


2008 Austrian government formation, Background
Fekter would most certainly remain interior minister or become justice minister; Hahn was also seen as staying in office, and general-secretary of the Österreichischer Wirtschaftsbund (Austrian SME Union or Austrian Business Federation, one of the constituent federations of the ÖVP) Karlheinz Kopf was considered likely to take over as economics minister. State secretary Marek was rumoured to be promoted to minister in a "generations ministry" (encompassing youth, family and pensioners' issues), and Josef Stockinger, the Upper Austrian agriculture state councillor, was seen as the most likely candidate to become agriculture minister.


2008 Austrian government formation, Background
The second main meeting was held on 30 October 2008; both parties reiterated that they were trying to finish the coalition negotiations as quickly as possible. On 4 November 2008, Pröll agreed to compromise on the SPÖ's demands to have a tax reform as early as 2009 instead of in 2010. On 6 November 2008, the SPÖ and the ÖVP agreed on the time (by March 2009) and volume (€2.7 billions) of the tax reform, clearing the way for another grand coalition.


2008 Austrian government formation, Background
Erich Haider later rejected the possibility of becoming health minister, but the SPÖ was reportedly still interested in swapping the justice ministry to gain the health ministry in the new government.


2008 Austrian government formation, Background
After a meeting between Faymann and Pröll on 16 November 2008, the ÖVP claimed there were still a number of open questions left to be resolved before it would decide on whether to enter into another grand coalition; the SPÖ then answered the ten open questions in writing on 17 November 2008. Pröll's demands were generally seen as a publicity stunt and were assumed to be likely to hurt his standing.


2008 Austrian government formation, Background
According to a report from 19 November 2008, it was seen as certain that Bures would become infrastructure minister, Schmied and Darabos would stay on in their current ministries, ÖGB president Rudolf Hundstorfer would become social and labour minister (taking over the labour agenda from the economics ministry), Schieder would remain state secretary and that either the chairman of the Upper Austrian Regional Health Insurance (Oberösterreichischen Gebietskrankenkasse) Alois Stöger or the finance city councillor of Linz Johann Mayr would become health minister.


2008 Austrian government formation, Background
Lower Austrian state councillor Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek was seen as the most likely women's minister, with Styrian MP Elisabeth Grossmann also a possibility. Depending on which ministry Pröll would choose (foreign and European affairs, economy or finance, with the latter seen as the most likely), the ÖVP's ministers could change, but it was assumed that Fekter would continue as interior minister or become justice minister, in which case Lower Austrian state councillor Johanna Mikl-Leitner would likely become interior minister.


2008 Austrian government formation, Background
Hahn would stay on as science minister, either president of the farmer's alliance (Bauernbund) Fritz Grillitsch or Upper Austrian agriculture state councillor Josef Stockinger would become agriculture minister and Plassnik would stay on as foreign and European affairs minister. One of the most important negotiators on Pröll's side, Karl-Heinz Kopf, would likely become chief of the parliamentary party, and Reinhold Mitterlehner would most likely become economics minister. The SPÖ's proposal to have two state secretaries (one each from the SPÖ and the ÖVP) for governmental coordination was seen as unresolved, but unlikely to be accepted by the ÖVP.


2008 Austrian government formation, Approval
The coalition negotiations were reported to end on 23 November 2008, with the leadership committees of the SPÖ and the ÖVP expected to approve the deal in the following week. In the final days of the negotiations, the SPÖ was strongly criticised for giving the ÖVP control of both the interior and the justice ministry, and for making the same mistakes it made two years earlier in leaving multiple important ministries in the hands of the ÖVP while having far fewer competences itself. As expected, the coalition was agreed upon on 23 November 2008, with the following ministry changes from the Gusenbauer cabinet:


2008 Austrian government formation, Approval
Ministers were expected to be announced on 24 November 2008, and the government was expected to be sworn in on 2 December 2008. In the EU referendums question, a compromise was achieved which stated that none of the two parties was allowed to call for a referendum on EU questions without the other party's approval; reportedly, this weakly worded compromise was one of the reasons why foreign minister Ursula Plassnik left the government.


2008 Austrian government formation, Approval
Ministry changes for the SPÖ were Doris Bures as infrastructure minister, Rudolf Hundstorfer as social minister, chairman of the Upper Austrian Regional Health Insurance Alois Stöger as health minister, Lower Austrian state councillor Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek as women's minister, Andreas Schieder as state secretary in the finance ministry and Josef Ostermayer (Faymann's former cabinet chief) as state secretary in the chancellor's office. Bures was replaced as Bundesgeschäftsführerin by Laura Rudas and Günther Kräuter.


2008 Austrian government formation, Approval
As for the ÖVP, rumours spoke of judge Claudia Bandion-Ortner as justice minister, second president of the National Council Michael Spindelegger as foreign minister, secretary-general of the association of savings banks (Sparkassenverband) Michael Ikrath as finance minister or former Styrian economics state councillor Herbert Paierl as economics minister, depending on which office Pröll took; senior executive president of Investkredit Wilfried Stadler was the most likely name for the state secretary in the finance ministry, if Pröll became finance minister.


2008 Austrian government formation, Approval
As expected, Fekter remained interior minister, Hahn stayed on as science minister and Spindelegger became foreign minister, as Pröll took over the finance ministry. Judge Claudia Bandion-Ortner (well-known to the public from the Konsum and BAWAG cases) became non-party justice minister, deputy president of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber Reinhold Mitterlehner became economics minister and Burgenland state councillor Niki Berlakovich became agriculture minister.


2008 Austrian government formation, Approval
The state secretary positions were filled by incumbent state secretaries: Reinhold Lopatka switched from state secretary for sports in the chancellor's office to state secretary in the finance ministry, while Christine Marek stayed on as state secretary in the economics ministry with her field of duties changing from labour to families and youth.


2008 Austrian government formation, Approval
The steering committees of both the SPÖ (unanimously) and the ÖVP (three votes against from Styrian party leader Hermann Schützenhöfer, Carinthian party leader Josef Martinz and the outgoing economics minister Martin Bartenstein) approved the coalition deal on 24 November 2008. Erich Foglar, chief of the union Metals–Textiles–Food, was announced as Hundstorfer's successor as ÖGB president on 24 November 2008, and the ÖVP announced Karlheinz Kopf as their new chief of the parliamentary party and unionist Fritz Neugebauer as their nominee for the post of second president of the National Council on 25 November 2008. Director of the Farmers' Alliance (Bauernbund) Fritz Kaltenegger replaced Hannes Missethon as ÖVP secretary-general.


2008 Austrian government formation, Approval
On 27 November 2008, it was announced that Bandion-Ortner would not be sworn in on 2 December 2008, as she had yet to finalise the verdict in the BAWAG case before becoming justice minister and a bout of flu kept her from doing in the few remaining days; science minister Hahn would instead be sworn in as interim justice minister for at most four weeks before she would take over. The chancellor, the vice-chancellor, the other ministers and the state secretaries were sworn in as planned on 2 December 2008. Bandion-Ortner was to be sworn in on 15 January 2009 after finalising the verdict on 31 December 2008.


2008 Austrian legislative election
Legislative elections were held in Austria on 28 September 2008 to elect the 24th National Council, the lower house of Austria's bicameral parliament. The snap election was called after Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) withdrew from the ruling grand coalition with the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) in July. Due to dissatisfaction with the governing parties, the opposition and minor parties were expected to make significant gains. Opinion polling indicated that up to seven parties could potentially win seats.


2008 Austrian legislative election
The SPÖ and ÖVP each suffered their worst election results in history up to this point, losing 6.1 and 8.3 percentage points respectively. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) captured the largest portion of these lost votes, each recording a six and a half-point swing. The Greens took small losses, while Liberal Forum (LiF) and Citizens' Forum Austria (FRITZ) both fell well short of the 4% electoral threshold, defying earlier expectations that they could enter the National Council. The result was perceived as a success for the right-wing populist and Eurosceptic parties.


2008 Austrian legislative election
Following the elections, Wilhelm Molterer resigned as chairman of the ÖVP and was replaced by agriculture minister Josef Pröll. The Greens' federal spokesman Alexander Van der Bellen, who had served since 1997, also resigned and was succeeded by his deputy Eva Glawischnig. Due to the Liberal Forum's failure to win seats, party founder Heide Schmidt and financier Hans-Peter Haselsteiner both announced their retirement from politics. Less than two weeks after the election, BZÖ leader and governor of Carinthia Jörg Haider died in a car accident.


2008 Austrian legislative election
A coalition between the SPÖ and the ÖVP was agreed upon on 23 November 2008 and was sworn in on 2 December 2008.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Background
On 11 January 2007, the Gusenbauer cabinet (a grand coalition of SPÖ and ÖVP) was sworn into office. The newly formed government was criticised from the beginning from parts of the opposition and left-wing circles in the SPÖ for having failed to push through in the coalition negotiations most of the pledges and promises made in the election campaign.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Background
The SPÖ began to fall back in the polls almost immediately. The government was frequently unable to agree on important decisions: The SPÖ demanded an antedated tax reform in 2009 instead of in 2010, which the ÖVP disagreed on; the proposal to help households hit by inflation with a tax gift of €100 was also denied by the ÖVP. The coalition partners also disagreed on the badly necessary health system reform.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Background
In the Tyrolean state election on 8 June 2008 the former ÖVP member Fritz Dinkhauser led his newly founded Citizens' Forum Tyrol to become the second-largest party, causing large losses to ÖVP and SPÖ and small losses to the Greens. Following this, internal criticism within the SPÖ of Gusenbauer grew, leading to the decision to designate infrastructure minister Werner Faymann as its new party leader. According to the plans at that time, Gusenbauer would have remained the leading candidate in the 2010 elections.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Background
On 26 June 2008, Faymann and Gusenbauer wrote a letter to the editor of the leading Austrian tabloid Kronen Zeitung, declaring they were in favour of referendums on important EU topics, like new treaties after the already ratified Treaty of Lisbon or the accession of Turkey to the European Union. They did this without seeking the approval of either the party leadership or their coalition partner ÖVP; it was widely perceived by Austrian and foreign media as a populist action and in acquiesce to the Eurosceptic position of Kronen Zeitung.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Background
On 7 July 2008, ÖVP leader Wilhelm Molterer declared that he could not continue to work with the SPÖ (the precise words with which he opened the news conference were "That's enough! ", Es reicht!). The ÖVP declared as the main reasons for the snap elections the change in the SPÖ's position on Europe and the planned dual leadership in the SPÖ, which the ÖVP claimed would make agreement on difficult issues even harder.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Background
The snap election was officially called in a parliamentary session on 9 July 2008 through a joint resolution by SPÖ, ÖVP and Greens, which FPÖ and BZÖ supported; the election date of 28 September 2008 was confirmed by the government and the main committee on 10 July 2008. The term of the legislature was the third-shortest in Austrian history (after 1970–1971 and 1994–1995). SPÖ and ÖVP agreed to a so-called Stillhalteabkommen, an agreement according to which neither of the two parties would try to outvote the other with the votes of the opposition parties, although this agreement was revoked by Faymann on 25 August 2008.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Background
The age required to have the right to vote had been reduced from 18 to 16 prior to the election in an electoral law reform enacted in 2007, which also had reduced the age required to stand in the election from 19 to 18, had introduced easier access to postal balloting and had lengthened the legislative term from four to five years. Another change was that different list names in the different states were no longer possible; the BZÖ had stood under a different name in Carinthia than in the rest of Austria in 2006.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Background
Turnout was initially expected to increase from the all-time low of 78.5% in 2006; more than 80% were expected to participate in the election according to early estimates, but it expectations changed to a decrease of turnout as the election day came closer. Postal balloting was expected to make up 7%–8% of the total vote; due to postal votes, the final result of the election would not be known until a week after the elections (on 6 October 2008).


2008 Austrian legislative election, Background
Postal ballots had to be sent to electoral commission together with a signed piece of paper stating the time and place when the vote had taken place; at a spot check in Salzburg, 20% of postal ballots were invalid because they lacked the signature or time and place. 9.27% of the voters (586,759 of 6,332,931 voters) had requested postal ballots, which meant that postal ballots could decisively change the election outcome.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Background
Another part of the 2007 electoral reform was that it was now possible to accommodate election observers in the election process. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development declined the invitation to send observers, however, stating that the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights had insufficient funds to send observers on such short notice.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Background
The Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung stated that Dinkhauser had "with hindsight been the first link in a chain of causation which led to the early elections, even though he had only wanted to force open the encrusted political landscape in Tyrol."


2008 Austrian legislative election, Contesting parties
The table below lists parties represented in the 23rd National Council.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Contesting parties, Qualified parties
In addition to the parties already represented in the National Council, nine parties collected enough signatures to be placed on the ballot. Five of these were cleared to be on the ballot in all states, four of them only in some.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Analyses and forecasts
Analysts and pollsters offered different opinions on whether smaller extraparliamentary parties had chances to enter parliament or not. According to some pollsters, the FRITZ had very good chances of getting into parliament, and the LIF with its founder Schmidt as its leading candidate, as well; the conditions were as good as they had never been before for smaller parties, according to some. Analysts agreed that apart from LIF and FRITZ, all others would fail to enter parliament.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Analyses and forecasts
Analysts furthermore asserted that the candidacy of the FRITZ would likely make the race for third place between Greens and FPÖ very competitive, as the FRITZ would likely gain protest votes which would otherwise go to the FPÖ. The critical time for the extraparliamentary parties was stated to be the very first phase of the campaign, when the larger parties had not yet really started campaigning and the smaller parties had a chance to gain publicity.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Analyses and forecasts
Following the announcement that Haider would return to federal politics, analysts held different opinions on the likely effects of this change. While the race for swing voters between ÖVP, FPÖ and BZÖ was seen to intensify, it was also remarked that Haider has lost much of his appeal and that it would be unlikely that the BZÖ would increase its share of votes just because of his candidacy.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Analyses and forecasts
The race for third place between the Greens and the FPÖ was seen to be balanced (as Haider might draw votes from the FPÖ and the LIF from the Greens) or slightly in favour of the Greens. One analyst even expected that Haider would attempt to get the FPÖ to adopt a partner relationship with the BZÖ (similar to the Christian Democratic Union–Christian Social Union of Bavaria alliance in Germany), with the BZÖ only operating in Carinthia and the FPÖ in the rest of Austria, after the 2008 election. Stadler confirmed that this was the goal of the BZÖ. Strache explicitly ruled out such an alliance on 7 September 2008.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Analyses and forecasts
Four weeks before the election, analysts agreed that the climate was very good for the SPÖ following Faymann's announcement that he would take measures against rising prices, although they also cautioned that the SPÖ's victory was not yet a done deal. The FPÖ was seen as strongly increasing their share of the votes when compared to the 2006 election and the BZÖ was seen as having secured its stay in the National Council. The Greens were seen to be stagnating, while the extraparliamentary parties faced difficulties with entering parliament, with the chances of LIF and the FRITZ intact.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Analyses and forecasts
Former ÖVP leader Wolfgang Schüssel claimed on 4 September 2008 the ÖVP's low numbers in the polls were due to the large number of parties contesting the election and denied that the ÖVP had made mistakes in their election campaign so far. Analysts asserted that the Greens' decision to strongly support the animal rights activists remanded in custody under controversial circumstances (see above) might be risky, but that it might pay off through the increased publicity and mobilisation of core voters.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Analyses and forecasts
Only four possible coalitions were seen as likely to have a majority after the election: SPÖ–ÖVP, ÖVP–FPÖ–BZÖ, SPÖ–GRÜNE–BZÖ and SPÖ–FPÖ–BZÖ; all but a new grand coalition were seen as unlikely.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Campaign
Campaigning in the 2008 Austrian legislative election revolved around inflation, rising prices, transport, future treaties of the European Union, crime, integration, right to stay, education, privatisation of Austrian Airlines, budgets, TV schedule, fairness accord, the Eurofighter Typhoon contract renegotiation and the Role of the Kronen Zeitung.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Election day
For the first time in the history of Austrian elections, there were different ballots in all nine states (in 2002 there were three different ballots, in 2006 there were seven). The ballots featured parliamentary parties in the order of votes they received in the last election, i.e. SPÖ, ÖVP, Greens, FPÖ, BZÖ.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Election day
The extraparliamentary parties were listed in the order in which they submitted their state candidate lists, and this order was different in all nine states; Dinkhauser, for instance, wanted the FRITZ to be the last on the ballot in all nine states, but the Left (in Burgenland and Tyrol) and the Christians (in Salzburg) submitted their lists after he did. The longest ballots could be found in Carinthia and Vienna, which broke the previous record of eleven lists (Vorarlberg, 1994) with twelve lists. Burgenland, Salzburg, Tyrol and Upper Austria had eleven lists, and Lower Austria, Styria and Vorarlberg had only the ten national lists on the ballot.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Election day
National candidate lists had to be submitted by 8 September 2008 and were published on [12 September 2008 in the Wiener Zeitung; all lists except STARK and Klement submitted national candidate lists.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Election day
Voting booths closed at 13:00 in Vorarlberg, at 16:00 in Carinthia, Styria and Upper Austria, at 16:30 in Burgenland and at 17:00 in Lower Austria, Salzburg, Tyrol and Vienna.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Results, Results by state
Map showing the results of the election on the state level


2008 Austrian legislative election, Results, Results by state
Map showing the results of the election on the sub-constituency level


2008 Austrian legislative election, Results, Results by state
Map showing the results of the election on the district level


2008 Austrian legislative election, Results, Results by state
Map showing the results of the election on the municipal level


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
The elections saw a historically low turnout. Both the SPÖ and the ÖVP had the worst result in history, while the combined so-called "third camp" (drittes Lager, consisting of the FPÖ and the BZÖ) had the best result the far right has had in the Second Austrian Republic, very nearly gaining a plurality of seats if taken together. The Greens suffered slight losses, while neither the LIF nor the Citizens' Forum Austria crossed the electoral threshold of 4%.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
Government formation was expected to be very difficult and take a long time as both the SPÖ and the ÖVP had to assess and analyze their losses and decide on a course of action. The primary motive for the people who voted for the far right parties was dissatisfaction with the governing parties, which was summarised by Der Standard as "angry voters voting for angry parties". Josef Pröll gained the most state preference votes (59,583 on the Lower Austrian candidate list), with Faymann gaining 6,236 in Vienna and Strache 6,009 (also in Vienna). Strache also gained the most regional constituency preference votes (24,301), followed by Haider with 15,836 and SPÖ trade unionist Josef Muchitsch with 9,998.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
The SPÖ lost many voters to the FPÖ, while the ÖVP lost many voters to the BZÖ. The Greens lost a few voters to the LIF, and all three parties lost voters to the non-voters. Neither the SPÖ nor the FPÖ changed their positions after the election; the SPÖ reiterated it would never enter into a coalition with the FPÖ and the BZÖ, while the FPÖ did not waver in its stance of opposition to reunification with the BZÖ, although it toned down its rhetoric and stated it was open to closer cooperation.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
Nonetheless, many FPÖ voters and party members were reportedly strongly in favour of reunification; it was expected that Strache would have to reconsider his opposition to reunification in the months following the election. The CDU–CSU model proposed by some before the elections seemed to be off the table, as the BZÖ had strongly increased its share of the vote outside Carinthia, as well; on the other hand, the FPÖ had an increased incentive to reach such a cooperation, as it would free up BZÖ voters for the FPÖ outside Carinthia. On 6 October 2008, Haider stated he was against a reunification, as the two parties had developed into different directions and could gain more votes separately than reunified.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
Analysts expected Molterer to step down, with the ÖVP taking a pivotal role in the coalition negotiations; under Josef Pröll, it was expected to take part in a renewed grand coalition, trying to win back the voters' confidence, while under another new chairman, it was considered possible the ÖVP could form a right-wing coalition with the FPÖ and the BZÖ. Johannes Hahn and Maria Fekter had been mentioned as possible alternatives to Molterer; a party leadership meeting was held on 29 September 2008.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
As expected by many, Molterer stepped down and Pröll became acting party chairman, and ÖVP secretary-general Missethon and many other prominent politicians from the Schüssel/Molterer era were also expected to be replaced. Pröll was to become party chairman at a party convention set for 28 November 2008 in Wels.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
As expected, Pröll was approved as party leader with 89.6% of the votes (the worst result in the history of ÖVP in leadership elections without an opposing candidate); Lower Austrian state secretary Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Tyrolean governor and former interior minister Günther Platter, interior minister Maria Fekter and new chief of the parliamentary party (replacing Pröll) Karlheinz Kopf were elected as deputy leaders. Economy minister Bartenstein and former chancellor Schüssel became backbenchers, as they stated they would take up their seats in parliament but were not going to be elected or appointed to any important position.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
Pröll announced he would replace Schüssel as chairman of the ÖVP parliamentary group. ÖVP ministers Kdolsky (health) and Plassnik (foreign affairs) were also considered certain to leave politics; they were reportedly looking to work in the World Health Organization and Austrian ambassador to the United States, respectively. Social minister Buchinger from the SPÖ was assumed to be out of federal politics, as well, as he was seen as certain to be replaced by a trade unionist (Csörgits or Kuntzl, as mentioned before the election).


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
Apart from a renewed grand coalition, some members of the SPÖ, the ÖVP and the Greens floated the possibilities of an SPÖ–ÖVP–Greens coalition (also called "Kenya coalition", referring to the party colours and the colours of the flag of Kenya), having the Greens act as a mediator between the two big parties. A right-wing ÖVP–FPÖ–BZÖ coalition, an SPÖ minority government, an SPÖ–FPÖ coalition, an SPÖ–BZÖ–Greens or an ÖVP–BZÖ–Greens coalition were also seen as possibilities, although unlikely ones. The FPÖ and the BZÖ explicitly declared they were not willing to offer their support to an SPÖ minority government.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
The Greens held a party leadership meeting on 30 September 2008; despite the slight losses the Greens suffered, Van der Bellen did not step down, as he was nonetheless regarded as enjoying strong support from both party members and voters; the Greens did not rule out a Kenya coalition or supporting a minority government under some circumstances. It was expected that Van der Bellen would step down at a later date.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
Van der Bellen resigned on 3 October 2008 and was provisionally replaced by Eva Glawischnig, who had long been considered his designated successor; she was confirmed as federal spokeswoman at the party congress on 17 January, and 18 January 2009 in Klagenfurt with 97.4% of the delegates' votes, the best result for a spokesperson of the Greens so far and also an unexpectedly decisive result; she had stated she was hoping for "more than 80%". Van der Bellen said he would remain an MP. Van der Bellen's resignation came as a surprise, as he was assumed to continue as federal spokesman for a few more months before resigning. Glawischnig was also unanimously selected as chief of the Greens' parliamentary club on 24 October 2008.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
The SPÖ and the FPÖ also held party leadership meetings on 30 September 2008. The FPÖ rejected conducting secret negotiations with either the SPÖ or the ÖVP, calling on both parties to declare openly if they wanted to have them as a coalition partner; Strache stated, however, that he would set strict coalition conditions, including holding referendums on the accession of Turkey to the European Union and the Treaty of Lisbon and restricting social benefits to Austrian citizens, which made coalitions with either the SPÖ or the ÖVP highly unlikely.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
Faymann stated that he was not interested in a Kenya coalition, as a coalition with three partners was only likely to be more difficult to manage than one with two partners. Pröll declared his opposition to both a Kenya coalition and a right-wing coalition with the FPÖ and the BZÖ, leaving the ÖVP with only the possibilities of a grand coalition or the opposition; the party membership was largely undecided between the two options. On 2 October 2008, a conflict arose between the SPÖ and the ÖVP regarding referendums on future EU treaties, as the SPÖ wanted to at least not rule out the possibility in a coalition agreement, which the ÖVP refused to accept under any circumstances.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
The FPÖ won back the post of third president of the National Council from the Greens. Three people were primarily mentioned as likely to replace Eva Glawischnig in that position: education spokesman Martin Graf, justice spokesman Peter Fichtenbauer and Lower Austrian FPÖ leader Barbara Rosenkranz. Graf was nominated on 30 September 2008. While the Greens stated they opposed Graf's nomination because of Graf's position as chairman of the nationalist Burschenschaft Olympia, the other parties initially stated they would approve his nomination.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
After some SPÖ MPs also voiced their reservations about Graf, presidents of the National Council Barbara Prammer (SPÖ) and Michael Spindelegger (ÖVP) stated they would seek personal talks with Graf before his nomination. After Graf refused to renounce his membership in Olympia, the Greens announced they would propose Van der Bellen as an alternative to Graf.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
The SPÖ announced its MPs would be free to vote for or against Graf, while the ÖVP stated it would support Graf as the third-placed party by tradition had the right to nominate whomever they wished; it was expected that Graf would be elected with the votes of the ÖVP, the FPÖ and the BZÖ. Graf was elected on 28 October 2008 with 109 votes to Van der Bellen's 27.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
All parties except for the ÖVP supported making the appointment of a committee of inquiry a parliamentary minority right; as the ÖVP had fewer than a third of the MPs, it was technically possible for the other four parties to outvote it on amending parliamentary law, but it was unclear whether the other parties wanted to set a precedent by using this option. The ÖVP later announced that it was willing to agree to this change, if committees of inquiry were reformed in general.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
Both Schmidt and Haselsteiner declared that their political activities were completely over. Nonetheless, many party members and supporters called for the LIF to continue its work. A party convention was held on 25 October 2008 to start a renewal process and relaunch the party. Werner Becher was elected as the LIF's new leader, although he described his position as a primus inter pares. The LIF announced it would launch a reform process, renew its party program and start to build up strong local party organisations in the cities and the states.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions
At the next regular party convention in April 2009, the party would then approve the changes (and likely change its name, as well; "The Liberals" (Die Liberalen) was considered the most likely new name), finalising the relaunch as a liberal party putting more emphasis on economic liberalism as well as social liberalism.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions, Haider's death
BZÖ leader and Carinthian governor Jörg Haider died in a car accident in Köttmannsdorf near Klagenfurt in the state of Carinthia in the early hours of 11 October 2008. Police reported that the Volkswagen Phaeton that Haider had been driving came off the road, rolled down an embankment and overturned, causing him "severe head and chest injuries". Haider, who was on his way to a family gathering in honour of his mother's 90th birthday, was alone in the government car and no other vehicles were involved.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions, Haider's death
An initial investigation uncovered no signs of foul play, but police stated Haider was going at 142 km/h, more than double the 70 km/h allowed at the location of the accident, and it later emerged that Haider had had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.18 per cent. Countless leading Austrian politicians and former politicians from all parties expressed their condolences.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions, Haider's death
Deputy governor Gerhard Dörfler (also from the BZÖ) took over as acting governor of Carinthia and was then nominated to become governor in his own right on 13 October 2008, while BZÖ general-secretary Stefan Petzner was selected as interim BZÖ leader on 12 October 2008. Haider's funeral was held on 18 October 2008 with much international attention and coverage. After the well-received speech of Haider's widow, Claudia Haider, at the funeral, there were rumours that she might become the BZÖ's candidate for governor in Carinthia in the 2009 state election instead.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions, Haider's death
The vote on who would become governor until the election was to be held on 23 October 2008; the SPÖ nominated Carinthian leader Reinhart Rohr. The Greens announced they would definitely not support Dörfler, while the ÖVP was in negotiations with both the BZÖ and the SPÖ regarding whom they would support. Dörfler was elected with 19 votes to Rohr's 17; Rohr got 14 SPÖ votes, 2 Green votes and 1 BZÖ vote, while Dörfler received 14 BZÖ votes (all but one), 4 ÖVP votes and 1 FPÖ vote. Uwe Scheuch was elected as Carinthian BZÖ leader at the Carinthian BZÖ party convention on 15 November 2008 with 96.2% of the votes.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions, Haider's death
There were rumours that Haider's death would facilitate the reunification of the FPÖ and the BZÖ, enabling Strache to make a bid for power. Lothar Höbelt, a historian known to be close to the "third camp", stated that the BZÖ would be unlikely to survive without Haider and that the ÖVP could possibly gain back voters from the BZÖ if they played their cards right and forged a right-wing coalition; in the case of a renewed grand coalition, Höbelt expected most BZÖ voters to go to the FPÖ.


2008 Austrian legislative election, Reactions, Haider's death
Following a series of highly emotional and unprofessional interviews by Petzner (some of which were seen as alluding to a personal relationship between Haider and Petzner beyond mere friendship), there were rumours that he would not become leader of the parliamentary BZÖ group on 22 October 2008 and that Haider's sister and former social minister Ursula Haubner or former defence minister Herbert Scheibner might be selected instead. These rumours were immediately denied by senior BZÖ officials, including Haubner and Scheibner.