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Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop praised the country's gun control laws on Tuesday in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting which left at least 59 people dead.
Bishop's comments came after a 64-year-old gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on a country music festival in the U.S. city of Las Vegas, killing at least 58 people and wounding more than 500, reigniting calls for strict gun control in the United States.
"All we can do is offer our experience," Bishop said.
"After the Port Arthur Massacre (which left 35 people dead in Tasmania in 1996) we established the National Firearm agreement.
"But it would be a matter for U.S. legislators to deal with another horrific incident, which as they say is the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history."
She said that she has reached out to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to offer Australia's condolences.
Speaking to media on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that Australia was still making inquiries with authorities in Las Vegas to determine if any Australians were affected.
"This is a reminder that we must constantly work to stay ahead of the threat, whatever the motives of threat, whatever the motives of those who seek to do us harm," Turnbull said.
"We must constantly improve our laws and our techniques to stay ahead of those who seek to do us harm. There is no place for set and forget in national security."
Authorities in the United States identified Australian woman Marilou Danley, 62, as a person of interest in the shooting as Paddock's companion.
Bishop, however, ruled out Danley's involvement in the attack, saying she was travelling in the Philippines at the time.
"There are reports that her identification was used to book the hotel but investigations are ongoing," Bishop said.
"The U.S. authorities were in contact with us about Marilou and I understand they have ruled her out as a person of interest as she was not in the United States when this horrific incident occurred."
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
