Joyce stands by Indon comments

Barnaby Joyce isn't backing away from controversial comments linking Labor's live export ban to a surge in asylum seeker boats.

The deputy prime minister believes his comments were grounded by fact, pointing to threats by a senior Indonesian minister last year to release a "human tsunami" of asylum seekers in response to pressure from Canberra over the Bali nine executions.

"People can argue with me all they want but it's going to be really hard to argue with a senior Indonesian minister," Mr Joyce told AAP on Tuesday.

The Nationals leader said he never intended - and didn't create - a diplomatic incident with Jakarta.

But he believes there's been an overreaction to the comments.

"You can argue about the causation issue, but you can't argue about the correlation."