I understand. It comes down to interpreting the laws in Australia, including working with children laws and the context of what is an institution.
For example, I appeared before parliament in Australia last year as a witness and gave evidence in relation to the National Redress Scheme application form questions.
To illustrate (the following paragraphs not being legal advice): a 19 year old male (or older) is allowed to ask a 16 or 17 year old female out on a date. Or vice versa. In most circumstances this is allowed. In fact repeated requests are allowed.
However, consider the following: if the male was a ministerial servant and he had a working with children card (as mandated by law) then it would restrict his ability to ask such a female (in the congregation) out on a date as he has legislated and congregational authority over her. If they did ‘date’ and ‘sexual sins’ followed, then the JW religion could be liable and subject to a Redress Scheme claim up to $150,000. There could be more to the events but that is not considered in this summation.
The governing body were offered help to navigate all of these potential problems but chose to ignore the help, and now the corporation will most likely financially suffer from their stubborness.