Mandatory reporting IMHO is a red herring. Jackson bleating about trying to manage the various issues around confidentiality and protection, twisting and turning to portray Jehovah's Witnesses as some kind of loose religious co-operative with limited structure and then basically asking the commission to make it all easy by requiring mandatory reporting is pure hypocrisy.
Why is the WTS so unwilling to apply best practice that has already been implemented in other organisations? Why is the WTS so unwilling to unilaterally prioritise the reporting of alleged abuse to the authorities then worry about the internal disciplinary process once the facts are independently established? Why is the WTS so unwilling to make the procedure completely open, transparent and clear to anyone inside or outside the organisation?
These are questions that the WTS should be forced to face up to. Making the problem go away by enforcing mandatory reporting allows the WTS to avoid putting it's house into order when it is completely within their power to do so. Things might change for the better in Australia but simply waiting for the government to force the issue means they continue to stick with the status quo everywhere else.