Jack Dempsey personal trip 'evolved' into official trip, he says Police Minister Jack Dempsey says his long-planned personal trip to Cairns last year to watch his young son play football "evolved" into an official trip in the week before he was due to leave. Premier Campbell Newman said he asked Mr Dempsey, who had just taken over the portfolio a month before hand, to "put his shoulder to the wheel" and go to Cairns for a trip which had "been there for a long time before he came minister." Both have declared the matter closed. Mr Dempsey has never denied having planned a personal trip to the region in May last year, before he became a minister, but said law and order issues necessated the visit become official. The change from personal to official meant Mr Dempsey could use his ministerial travel allowance to pay for the $2000 trip. An email from the time showed one of Mr Dempsey's advisors wrote to a staffer at police headquaters and asked if there was a "quick event" which could be "thrown together" for the visit. Subsequently, Mr Dempsey announced he would visit the region, his first trip since being sworn in as a minister the month before, to meet with emergency services and police chiefs, business leaders and local LNP members. Mr Dempsey said he saw his son "for about 30 minutes" in between his meetings. Mr Newman, who on Monday denied Mr Dempsey had ever planned a private visit, said on Tuesday "irrespective of what was in his mind" Mr Dempsey went to Cairns "on my direction," for what he said had been a long planned official trip. "Originally he wasn't the minister for police, he became the minister for police and the trip was there a long time before he became the minister," Mr Newman said. He became the minister, he went to Cairns, he worked his butt off and that is very clear, that is what matters, it was a business trip with a lot of very important work done. Mr Dempsey called the matter a Labor "estimates stunt" and accused opposition MP Bill Byrnes of not understanding "how a minister goes about his or her particular portfolios." Mr Byrnes had attempted to raise the matter at an estimates hearing last week, but LNP MP committee chair Ian Berry dismissed the questions as being outside the hearings purview. Mr Dempsey said at "no time did I ask any staff member to throw together an event." "The Premier advised me that I should go to Cairns and I have since been to Cairns on eight other [occasions]...when a staff member knows no matter where I am going whether it is in an official capacity or unofficial capacity, if there is an opportunity to help the community in that particular area, then they'll obviously look for opportunities and that is what happened in this particular occasion," Mr Dempsey said. As the week and the days evolved, because it a portfolio which involves police and ambulance and emergency, anything can evolve within a 24 hour period, let alone a weekly period. If you read through the email the actual staff member has advised that I am going to Cairns in relation to a private issue...and then obviously with the portfolio that I am in charge of...it's an evolving process. Mr Dempsey said a minister's job was a 24-hour, seven day commitment and he took his responsibility to his portfolio and the people of Queensland seriously.