Lieutenant Colonel Kas Paul (retired), who served in the military between 1971 and 1993, said men and women who volunteered for the Australian Defence Force while conscription was in force had not been on equal footing with their involuntary peers since the introduction of the National Service Medal in 2001.

"You can have two soldiers, both of whom have done the same jobs and been to the same places, standing side by side and one will have one more medal than the other, the National Service Medal," Colonel Paul said.

"I myself would feel slighted [in that situation]. Because they had been forced to do it [serve in the ADF], they [the national servicemen] are being recognised at a higher level.

"I do salute the national servicemen and I don't begrudge them their award. But who do you respect the most, those who chose to do something or those who did it because they were told to?"

Colonel Paul described the anomaly as divisive in a recent submission to the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal.

"Refusal of a similar award to the volunteers who were not compelled but willingly enlisted during an era of conflicts such as the Malaysian Confrontation and Vietnam is unfair and even insulting to the volunteers," he said.

"The service rendered and the risks faced were entirely the same for both groups. The rewarding of just conscripts is discriminatory and un-Australian because of the special treatment given to them over volunteers."

Colonel Paul, who recalls being spat at and abused for choosing to wear his nation's uniform in the early 1970s, said honouring conscripts over volunteers "serves as a patent example to volunteers of national ungratefulness for their service rendered".

John Faunt, the ACT branch president of The National Servicemen's Association, does not believe there is a case for a volunteers medal.

He said the National Service Medal was conceived as a commemorative decoration, hence its full name "The Anniversary of National Service Medal". Commemorative decorations are worn on the right side of the chest.

"The government erred by putting the name and number on the medal and issuing a directive it could be worn on the left side," he said. "They created one thing but implemented another.

"This is one of those issues that will never go away. There are even discrepancies with the conditions for the National Service Medal [from period to period and conflict to conflict].

Mr Faunt said another medal wasn't the answer. "There are enough medals already," he said.

Colonel Paul said the Gallipoli centenary year was the ideal time to strike a volunteers medal.

"Provision of a retrospective award [for volunteers] would properly honour them and, in so doing, also pay homage to all of the original Anzacs, who were entirely volunteers," he said.

He rejected the suggestion the Australian Defence Medal, which is issued to all ADF members who satisfactorily complete their term of enlistment, recognised volunteers in the same way as the National Service Medal.

"Conscripts are also eligible to receive this award. [And] conscripts need to have only completed two years of service whereas for all others it is generally to have served for four years or completed an initial enlistment period."