Confirming weeks of speculation, and planning to "reinvent" himself as an expert on Asia, former Foreign Minister Bob Carr said he will be resigning from this Senate post for a life in academics. He will be submitting his resignation on Thursday.

In his post-retirement, Mr Carr will take up two part-time academic positions. He will join the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre as a professorial fellow and also join the University of New South Wales as an adjunct professor.

Senator Carr, who former New South Wales premier, filled the Senate vacancy resulting from the resignation of former minister Mark Arbib. He got inducted into Julia Gillard's cabinet in March 2012 after Kevin Rudd resigned, challenging Ms Gillard's leadership of the Labor party.

With Mr Rudd ascending to become the prime minister, Senator Carr moved away from Ms Gillard - a move which he now terms as a "purely pragmatic decision", based on Labor's performance in the polls.

Speaking about his 18 months as foreign minister, Carr said: "It's been a very great honour for me."

"Life is a learning experience and the last 18 months has been the richest learning experience imaginable," he said.

Commenting on his experience of working closely with two Labor prime ministers, Senator Carr said he was "struck by a lack of canniness in the [Labor] government."

"A lack of caution, cunning - canniness is probably the best word," he observed.

"I did notice a lack of calculation, careful political instinct from 2007."

He termed the Labor's government's introduction of the carbon tax and dismantling the Pacific Solution for boat people, as decisions that are "not cautious enough".

Commenting on the governmental system in Australia, Senator Carr suggested, the country should look to adopt a system like the U.S. in which expert outsiders can occupy cabinet roles.

"It does require a certain planetary alignment," he said. On the other hand, "It does offer a flexibility that would otherwise not be there."

Terming his earlier comment of a long spell in the Senate as one of "irrational exuberance," Senator Carr said he preferred not to hog the spot as a shadow minister when it could rather go to a younger member of the Labor caucus.