11.14AM, THURSDAY, July 17, 2014: the moment the tide went out on the climate con.

Australia became the first nation to repeal its unwanted, ill-begotten carbon tax. It won’t be the last.

After all the lies and deception, the game is up. A prime minister who defied the climate shamans was assisted by an average world temperature which has defied alarmist predictions for 16 years.

The global-warming industry knows it’s over. That’s why they tried so hard to stop Tony Abbott. That’s why Al Gore made an absurd last-ditch ­attempt to salvage the narrative on stage with Clive ­Palmer. He didn’t even try to sound plausible. No, it’s over.

media_camera Clive Palmer scratches his head Question Time at Parliament House on July 15, 2014

Greenies reacted with a collective global tantrum. The Guardian’s chief climate hysteric George Monbiot tweeted about the “Abbottalypse”. The Independent declared Australia “an international laughing-stock”. Back home, the Greens squealed like stuck pigs.

Abbott has been on the right side of history ever since he seized the Liberal leadership from climate believer Malcolm Turnbull in 2009.

But the unsung men and women who put him there should be acknowledged. Many paid a price for their courage and integrity.

On Thursday night the core group of eight — or G8 — gathered for a quiet celebration, the culmination of a seven-year campaign.

These were senators Cory Bernardi, Michaelia Cash, Mathias Cormann, Brett Mason, Barnaby Joyce, Mitch Fifield, Fiona Nash and David Bushby.

For 12 to 15 months before Abbott became leader, they would meet in Bernardi’s office and hatch plans to defeat Kevin Rudd’s ETS, despite Turnbull’s embrace of it.

media_camera Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott delivers his keynote speech during the B20 Summit in Sydney on July 17, 2014

South Australian senator Nick Minchin was crucial. He was the elder statesman who smelled a climate rat early on.

This was a time when even to question climate alarm was to be slimed and ostracised in the finest McCarthyist tradition. It was the era of Al Gore’s climate horror flick An Inconvenient Truth.

In April 2007, Bernardi kicked off hostilities with an essay titled Cool Heads ­Needed On Global Warming.

“I have come to believe we’re seeing a distortion of a whole area of science that is being manipulated to present a certain point of view to the global public,” he wrote.

Turnbull turned on Ber-nardi. As environment minister, Turnbull had convinced John Howard that his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty (which Howard regarded as “useless”) would cost him the 2007 election unless he promised an emissions trading scheme. In the grips of one of our periodic droughts, Australia was susceptible to the message that humanity’s greed had turned the climate feral and now we must repent. Anyone who honestly questioned the climate juggernaut was not just wrong but evil.

Even the best politicians caved in, as the scare campaigns grew ludicrous. The UN claimed we had only “four months” to save the planet.

Himalayan glaciers were melting, the Amazon rainforest dying, polar bears facing extinction. They lied and lied, a noble corruption they felt was justified to save the planet.

media_camera Deputy Leader of the Opposition Tanya Plibersek during Question Time at Parliament House on July 15, 2014 in Canberra

media_camera Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten during Question Time at Parliament House on July 15, 2014 in Canberra, Australia

The leaked emails of ­scientists in the Climategate scandal laid it bare.

The IPCC’s Nobel prize-winning Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 was sexed up with propaganda from WWF and Greenpeace and anecdotes from Climber magazine.

Bob Brown demanded “coal barons” pay reparations for floods because he claimed burning coal caused rain. The Rudd government’s pet economist Ross Garnaut told us we would have to start eating kangaroo because beef and lamb were too “carbon intensive”.

Australia’s chief scientist, Professor Penny Sackett, said we had only five years to stop catastrophic global warming.

Turnbull, who became the Opposition leader in 2008, visited UK greenie Tory David Cameron and came home ­enthused. “I will not lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as I am,” he said.

media_camera Senator Mitch Fifield moves a motion to vary the order of government business placing the Climate Change Authority (Abolition) Bill 2013 after the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2013 on July 15, 2014 in Canberra

He promised Kevin Rudd the ETS he craved so he could parade his climate virtue at the Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009.

But the Australian public was going cold, with polls showing most wanted the ETS delayed until after Copenhagen. Turnbull’s party was also pulling away from him.

Finally, on November 27, 2009, there was a marathon showdown in the party room.

According to one insider, the meeting opened with Turnbull declaring he’d negotiated a wonderful deal.

Then Andrew Robb stood and spoke against the ETS. The debate went on for 11 hours: 32 spoke in favour of the ETS and 41 spoke against it.

Mason asked why would we agree to an ETS when it would make the nation less competitive. At this point Turnbull began heckling Mason.

Turnbull declared he had the support of the party, when he didn’t. He refused the compromise Minchin offered, to delay until after Copenhagen. That signed his political death warrant. After a messy few days, Turnbull was replaced and Rudd’s ETS was defeated. We owe all of those who fought a debt of gratitude.