Former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr says the Australian Federal Police owe the nation a "more convincing explanation" as to why they did not take better account of the death penalty before giving Indonesian authorities the tip-off that led to the arrest of the Bali nine.

"I've got no criticisms of the Australian government handling of this," he said in Sydney on Wednesday.

"This is the grimmest of consular cases, and all consular cases involve a recognition that Australians are at the mercy of the legal system under which they have committed the offence. [But] I'd like to hear a bit more from the federal police that suggests they are reflecting on their modus operandi ... and why [they] did not give a proper weighting to the capital punishment that might await the Australians who were allowed  to leave these shores."

Barrister Bob Myers, a family friend of one of the Bali nine, is among those accusing the AFP  of "sacrificing" the two men by allowing them to leave for Indonesia despite having advance knowledge of their plans.

With ring-leaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran possibly facing execution within the next few weeks, Mr Carr said he was encouraging new Indonesian President Joko Widodo to consider clemency. "There would be warmth that would flow from Australia towards Indonesia and its president [if that occurred]," Mr Carr said.

"I would encourage the Indonesian president to think about it, not only as a gesture to Australian opinion, but to others in the world who think highly of Indonesia and its future."

Mr Carr was appearing at the McKell Institute along with Gareth Evans, Labor's long-serving foreign minister during the Hawke-Keating era.

Professor Evans said Jokowi (as the Indonesian president is known) was "turning out to be profoundly conservative in his social and  economic instincts" and that he was "trying to demonstrate his cojones, his testosterone" in a difficult  domestic political environment.

"That's unfortunately what we are seeing working itself out in the context of the drug trafficking convictions and the absolute determination to execute people without regard to any individual circumstances."

Professor Evans warned that keeping relations with Indonesia on an even keel was a top foreign policy priority.

"And its going to be tough again if this terrible execution of Chan and Myuran should proceed, as we all fear it will, in the next couple of weeks," he said. "But we really haven't got much choice, after expressing our opposition in unmistakeable terms, to nonetheless move on. Indonesia is the fourth biggest country in the world, the biggest Islamic country ... and we are inextricably bound in a relationship."

Both Mr Carr and Professor Evans called for Australia to maintain greater independence from the United States, especially with regard  to disputes between China, the US and Japan.

"I don't for a moment advocate tearing up the alliance relationship [with the US], " Professor Evans said. "But I do advocate a little less puppy-like devotion to US causes, particularly of a military kind."

Mr Carr said Australia had to "carefully weave neutrality" into its relations with Japan, China and the US  over the hot-button issue of the disputed Senkoku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

"We should be, to use Abbott's recent word, 'socialising' them to the notion that Australia sees it – should there be a flare up – as being in our interests to stay out of it, " he said.

Mr Carr added that the decision about whether or not to source Australia's submarine fleet from Japan would be seen as a "strategic statement" unless it was done according to a rigorous tender process.