The tab: $24,805.

And that doesn't include any meals, hotels or entertainment. So, add another $4,500 to the bill.

Matheson revealed the trip last month in congressional disclosures, he says, after discovering that the Australian government had not paid for all of it, as he previously had thought.

The nonprofit Australian American Association picked up most of the tab, a point Matheson disclosed in the wake of recent controversy over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's trips abroad. DeLay came under fire after critics questioned whether a foreign agent or lobbyists had actually paid for his travel, a violation of House ethics rules.

Neither Matheson, nor any of the other Utah delegation members, have been questioned about any ethics violations, but the lone Utah Democrat in Congress was one of 30 members to belatedly disclose trips in May.

And Matheson's newly revealed trip, which started four days after he won a third term, rockets him higher in the rankings of Politicalmoneyline.com, a Web site that tracks congressional travel reports.

Sen. Bob Bennett still leads Utah's delegation in cost, with $43,348 for 13 trips since 2000, the Web site reports. The senator is currently on a trip to Turkey for a conference on U.S. foreign policy and the Islamic world, paid for by the Aspen Institute, which has picked up the bill for many of Bennett's trips.

Sen. Orrin Hatch took the most trips of the group: 38, at a cost of $37,879, according to disclosures.

Matheson jumped to third in the total cost of trips in the delegation after the Australia trip, and is followed distantly by Reps. Rob Bishop and Chris Cannon.

The trips range from Hatch speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to Bishop discussing trans-Atlantic relations during treks to Germany and Brussels, courtesy of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress. Cannon even took a trip to Rock Springs, Wyo., on the tab of Pacificorp, to tour its mine there.

None of those trips compare in cost to Matheson's trip, the total of which the congressman says he didn't learn until after he returned.

The Australian Embassy in Washington told Matheson in a letter in early May that the American Australian Association actually paid for the airfare, and Matheson quickly filed a report with the House, which requires disclosure within 30 days of the travel.

"We mistakenly assumed this was a government-to-government thing," Matheson said Wednesday. "Travel questions came up and I said we should make sure this is filed accurately. We took advice in the wrong way last summer."

Cannon also belatedly filed a disclosure showing a $220 lodging gift during a summer trip last year to Las Vegas to speak to the National Nutritional Foods Association. Cannon spokesman Charles Isom says there was some mix-up, and the amount was supposed to be disclosed but wasn't listed.

While Matheson would prefer to have a more user-friendly disclosure system in Congress, he says that domestic and foreign travel are helpful.

"The world is getting smaller and smaller every day," Matheson said.

"Members of Congress need to have an understanding of what's going on in the world."

University of Utah political scientist Tim Chambless agrees.

He says constituents want their representatives to be well-informed, with a grasp of global perspective.

"I don't think that the voting public sees anything wrong with these trips as long as [they are] related [to congressional issues] and if it doesn't interfere with scheduled votes or subcommittee meetings," said Chambless. All the better, he added, "if the trip doesn't cost the American taxpayer."

tburr@sltrib.com