Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s de­ci­sion to de­cline an in­vi­ta­tion to at­tend next week’s En­er­gy Con­fer­ence has drawn mixed re­ac­tions from for­mer min­is­ters and sen­a­tors.

For­mer prime min­is­ter and en­er­gy min­is­ter, Stu­art Young, said the stance tak­en by the Prime Min­is­ter was “hypocrisy at its best” as he said the Gov­ern­ment would still have to ne­go­ti­ate with many of the En­er­gy Cham­ber mem­bers con­cern­ing mat­ters which would im­pact the en­er­gy sec­tor.

“Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is re­ly­ing com­plete­ly on the multi­na­tion­al oil and gas com­pa­nies to ne­go­ti­ate and at­tempt to ob­tain cross-bor­der gas, for ex­am­ple, Drag­on. So whilst she tries to fool the pop­u­la­tion on one hand, the truth is she is to­tal­ly re­liant on them on the oth­er.”