Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating thinks he would be a better leader now than he was 16 years ago.

In an interview with the national German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the party figurehead ruminates about the issue following the elevation of his NSW Labor colleague Bob Carr, 64, to the Senate.

Paul Keating: "As you get older you do get smarter".

"I can do the job more easily now than I did at that time," he says, according to a translation and other quotes provided by the author.

‘‘Because as you get older you do get smarter.