UPDATE 11.54am: JEFF Kennett's call for a return to national service to boost community spirit has been rejected by Premier John Brumby.

The former Victorian premier and "nasho" said Australians were unchallenged, untested and too focused on themselves.



But Mr Brumby disagreed, saying Victorians already had a great spirit of community service.



"Victoria's got a higher proportion of volunteers than any other state," Mr Brumby said.



"We have had more than 1250 SES volunteers out assisting (flood victims) across the state.



"I don't think that national service is the answer. It's not something we are looking at or we are supporting."



Mr Kennett said it was time Australians realised just how lucky they were. "In Australia today we have a community in which people take for granted the environment in which we live and remain unchallenged and untested," he said.

"There is too much emphasis on the individual and not the community. The simple fact is that most people don't understand how lucky they are living here.

"National service is a good thing in that it would make that clear to people and also teach them what it means to be a member of the community."

Mr Kennett will today join Governor-General Quentin Bryce and members of the National Servicemen's Association in unveiling a memorial commemorating the 212 "nashos" who died serving in Vietnam and Borneo between 1965 and 1972.

The National Service Memorial, a fountain in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, will also honour all 287,000 Australians who served in the National Service scheme from 1964 to 1972.

John Doherty, a young boilermaker from Kerang, was called up in 1966 and served in Vietnam.

Serving with 3RAR, he was killed during a mortar attack in Bien Hoa province in 1968, leaving behind a wife and son, Darren, who was just four months old.

Today his granddaughter Isaebella , 17, will lay a wreath in memory of the grandfather she never knew.

"We are all emotional just retelling stories about him," she said of the Doherty family.

"Even though I didn't know him I'm very emotional just because of how his death affected my Nana's life, my father's life and my life."

She said she also felt for the families of Diggers killed in Afghanistan in recent years.

"Young guys going to Afghanistan have no idea what is ahead of them ... and they don't understand how it might affect those around them," she said.

Notable Australians who were conscripted include businessmen Lindsay Fox and Sir James Hardy, AFL coach Kevin Sheedy, former governors-general Bill Hayden and Sir Peter Hollingworth, and former deputy PM Tim Fischer.

"This memorial is entirely appropriate and long overdue," said Mr Kennett, who was called up in 1968 and served as a platoon commander in 1RAR in Malaya and Singapore.

"It is a salute to all those men and women who served as part of National Service, many of whom came back from Vietnam injured or not whole and who suffered ongoing pain because they were not embraced by the community."

Originally published as 'Bring back the nashos'