PRESIDENT Donald Trump is continuing his campaign to “Make America Great Again”, attracting controversy whenever he finds his Android phone, wherever his staff have hidden it.

But when I read about his plans for achieving said greatness, I’ve been struck by something that perhaps not enough of us acknowledge — that Australia is pretty great already.

While we can never hope to compete with the huge variety of fast food chains and cable channels in the US, there are so many things we take for granted here that Americans simply don’t have.

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

Obamacare was the signature achievement of the previous President, delivering coverage to millions of the poorest Americans, but even that didn’t go as far as our own precious Medicare system.

We can take it for granted that if anything is seriously wrong with us, we can go to public hospital and it will be free, even major heart surgery. We all have public health insurance where the premium varies according to our capacity to pay.

Plus, our pharmaceutical subsidies significantly defray the cost of prescription drugs. As someone who spent the past 20 years taking asthma drugs twice daily, I’m very grateful to every healthy person whose taxes have subsidised me breathing — cheers.

Paul Ryan, who designed the Republican plan, has been talking a lot about choice in recent weeks. But surely nobody would choose not to have health cover if they could afford to. Whereas in our system, private cover really is a choice that provides additional options, rather than a matter of life and death.

We are making great progress with healthcare. ObamaCare is imploding and will only get worse. Republicans coming together to get job done! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2017

It remains to be seen whether the GOP will manage to get its “TrumpCare” plan through — the Congressional Budget Office estimates that 24 million Americans will lose coverage if they do — but our Medicare system is politically untouchable. Even the idea of paying a couple of dollars every time you visit the GP was abandoned after the public howled it down.

FREE (ISH) EDUCATION

We’ve all heard about those nightmare US student loans where 20-year-olds graduate hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Why, one lucky person recently managed to pay back her $220,000 in just three years simply by being given a condo and buying another while living with her grandparents!

Australia’s system has gotten a lot more expensive since I was a student and had to pay about $1000 per semester — sorry, millennials! But the great thing about our HECS system is that you only have to pay the loan back at a relatively slow rate via your tax return — and only if you’re earning a reasonable income.

BETTER ELECTORAL SYSTEM

Our compulsory voting rules guarantee that we have a truly representative parliament, and gives us all the chance to enjoy sausage sizzles — everyone’s a winner. Plus, the independent Australian Electoral Commission ensures that votes are conducted fairly — no claims of millions of illegal immigrants voting here — and that the same system is used everywhere.

So, we have none of those hanging chads, or rules that exclude minorities, or results that are certified by partisan officials. Occasionally the AEC stuffs up — take a bow, WA division in the 2013 Senate poll — but our system is still the envy of the democratic world. Plus, rather than dubious voting machine, we use good old reliable (and relatively fraud-proof) pencils.

IT’S EASIER TO DUMP OUT LEADERS

Many of us probably view the frequent turnover of our prime ministers in recent years as a bad thing, and it certainly isn’t without its problems. But let’s say, hypothetically of course, that someone incredibly incompetent, erratic and even potentially dangerous had been elected President — you know, the kind of person who would make bombshell allegations about being the victim of espionage without any evidence, that kind of thing.

Well, impeaching a president is extremely complicated in the American system. Here, all you need is a quick spill and it’s done.

OUR POLITICIANS HAVE TO DISCLOSE THEIR FINANCIAL RECORDS

If we had leaders with extensive investments in Russia, to choose a completely random example, we’re going to know about it. The media keeps a close eye on Malcolm Turnbull’s extensive investment portfolio, for instance, and if a Prime Minister happens to invest in a piggery, it entertains everyone for years.

CAMPAIGNING FOR A MUSLIM BAN DOESN’T WIN ELECTIONS

We’ll see how One Nation goes at the next federal poll, but it would be fair to say that based on this weekend’s WA result, they aren’t exactly emulating Trump’s electoral success. What’s more, the Liberal Party’s deal with Pauline Hanson’s mob hurt them at the polls, too.

NO MASS SHOOTINGS SINCE 1996

This is the main reason why I could never live in America, where there were 136 mass shootings last year, amid 33,000 gun deaths annually. Here, touch wood, they’re practically obsolete after Howard’s post-Port Arthur reforms.

But in America, even the most minor restrictions like background checks seem politically impossible to implement, no matter how horrifying the shootings in schools and beyond.

WE’RE GREAT, MATE ...

So, we Australians have much to be thankful for. Our system is fair and kinder in quite a few respects than that of our friends across the Pacific, and we’re all a lot more moderate, as a rule.

We may be lagging behind with same-sex marriage and that whole republic business, we can’t hold a burning lump of coal to the innovation of Silicon Valley and neither country has much to boast about when it comes to race relations.

But the reality is that most of us are doing fine. Sure, our government isn’t getting much done just now. But in America, the entire system results in gridlock by design — as the new president is in the process of learning.

It recent months it feels pretty great to be Australian.

Dom Knight is a writer, broadcaster and co-founder of The Chaser. Continue the conversation on Twitter @domknight