Indonesia's former foreign minister has emphatically denied a link between the live cattle export ban and an increased flow of asylum seekers, saying it is "shocking" to suggest the Indonesian government would put lives at risk simply to make a political point.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce implied the Indonesian government could have been responsible for dispatching asylum seekers to Australia, after a "disastrous" decision to halt live cattle exports in 2011.

"Might I remind you that when we closed down the live animal export industry, it was around about the same time that we started seeing a lot of people arriving in boats in Australia," he said during a regional leaders debate.