You don’t have to be Mel Gibson in “What Women Want” to realise that things are amiss for women in politics at the moment.

Take the recent policy motions passed by the Liberal Women’s Council, which seemed to have little do with empowering women.

For example, a motion regarding income tax reform “so women can stay at home longer” springs to mind. I have no issue with women choosing to stay at home in a primary caregiver role. But as a Liberal, I can’t help but feel this policy is economically daft and undermines the huge benefit that women’s participation in the workface has to their families, the community and the economy.

In pure economic terms, closing the gap in workforce participation for women would add over $30 billion to our national GDP. Not to mention the volumes of literature that show the wider benefits of women’s economic participation – when women work, they invest their earnings in the wellbeing of their families and communities.

There remains a persistent gap in labour force participation between women and men in Australia, and there has been little progress in the increase of women’s full-time participation over recent decades, with Australia lagging behind other OECD countries. Policies that remove barriers to women’s participation, such as affordable and accessible childcare, are critical in closing this gap.

Women over 55 are becoming the fastest growing cohort of homeless Australians. This calls for policies and reforms that deal with superannuation for primary caregivers, as well as women’s housing security and affordable housing generally. Not policies that keep women home longer and leave them ill-equipped in the event their relationship breaks down in the future.

As the South Australian representative for the Hilma’s Network, a national initiative aimed at increasing the membership and participation of women in the Liberal Party, these were exactly the types of issues that were discussed at our sellout Adelaide launch event.

The average Australian voter is a 37-year-old woman, a woman my age, yet we are failing to see policies that speak to us. And not just from the Liberal Party.

We all love to see Adelaide come alive for the weekend, but where are the economic policies that go beyond a weekend or an election cycle? Economic equality won’t be solved by a weekend of all-male golf backed by that world-renowned bastion of gender equality, Saudi Arabia. However, when Labor women teed off about this association, they were promptly kicked off the course.

Until bodies such as the Liberal Women’s Council start speaking about issues that impact all women… instead of niche culture war issues, it will continue to fail to attract a diverse membership that can help the Party win elections

I recently attended a women in research event at SAHMRI, where our top female researchers called for better childcare policies to stop our female academics from falling behind or away completely in their research careers. These are women who are working away at cures for cancer, women whose work will benefit the entire the world for generations to come.

Most women I know are pretty busy. Busy breaking records and glass ceilings, raising children, running businesses and households. Women don’t have it all, they just do it all.

Connecting with women is a significant task for all political parties. The reality is, most women don’t have time for niche culture war issues.

Until bodies such as the Liberal Women’s Council start speaking about issues that impact all women, like the gender pay gap and women in leadership (including gender parity in its own parliamentary party), instead of niche culture war issues, it will continue to fail to attract a diverse membership that can help the Party win elections.

Another Women’s Council motion called for an inquiry into the teaching of gender ideology in schools. I asked my mother, who has been a public school teacher her entire working life, if she thinks this is an issue. Mum had some pretty sage advice: “It’s easier to focus on the fluffy issues than fixing the real problems.” Like the extraordinary demands teachers are facing in our schools, a health system in complete crisis and the daily struggle South Australian’s are facing in keeping up with the rising cost of living.

Fluffy issues might get you five minutes of fame on after dark TV, or momentarily encapsulate the State with an epic shoey on the golf course, but they do not solve the real and big problems we face. And they certainly do not appeal to mainstream women.

The stats remain underwhelming for women. Whether it’s our representation in leadership positions, the gender pay gap, the division of unpaid labour and the fact we remain overwhelmingly the victims of domestic violence. On average, a woman loses her life to male violence each week in Australia.

Policies which look beyond the next electoral cycle and obsessive culture wars are desperately needed. Women are the majority stakeholder of public policy and we are demanding much, much better.