Sovereignty is one of those words that gets thrown around when politically expedient, but without the gravity it actually deserves. It’s basic definition is about a country having the ability and power to be controlled by its own government.

Legally, it’s a little more complicated, but it boils down to supreme authority within a territory.

Politically, it’s whatever works best.

Sovereignty should be on the minds of most Australians, but it’s not – mostly because politicians don’t want it there. But it matters more than politicians would like us to think about.

It was on my mind recently, because it’s popped up across a few issues and our answer as a nation has been different each time. That’s not how sovereignty is supposed to work, and yet, for political expediency, it does.

We keep hearing that the AUKUS deal will ensure Australia’s sovereignty – that we need to pay the US to build its own submarines, so we can have eventually receive access to our own. But while Australia has handed over access to half of our military bases to the United States, and is setting up to allow more, we can not even guarantee that we will control the US submarines if (and it is a big if) we ever receive them.

Defence Minister Richard Marles all but admitted it during his most recent lollygag around Washington, beaming as he was led around by a former Fox News host who most recently made headlines for body-shaming Canadian military cadets.

Asked why Australia thought it would receive any submarines when the US couldn’t meet its own needs, Marles said:

“Because what AUKUS is doing is providing more sea days for the Virginia class fleet for the United States Navy, and more sea days’ worth than a single submarine.

“The establishment of the Submarine Rotation Force West at HMAS........

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