[10] Under Gutnick's leadership, the Beth Din was accused of nepotism, lack of transparency and financial irregularities in what was described as a "one-man operation".
This process is often mired in controversy, with London at times overruling the decisions of the Australian Beth Din,[15][16] and the topic causing tension between Joseph Abrahams and his community, forcing the rabbi to briefly resign his post.
[4] This difficulty in conversion in the early days of the settlement of Australia led to many Jews marrying non-Jews and assimilating into Australian culture.
[27] This decision was a rejection of Rabbi Yisrael Rosen who oversaw the conversions[26] from Israel, and in opposition to the Halacha, and a longstanding convention in Orthodoxy.
[32] The MBD deal with about 40 divorces per annum,[33] and have at times needed to rule in cases of agunah, or gett refusal.
[31] While the Beth Din have tried to ease the suffering, they are very conservative in their interpretation of Halacha,[36] and their procedures can cause cases to extend a lot longer than necessary.
An earlier ruling was made by the Beth Din during the tenure of Rabbi Brodie against communally organised ball sports on Shabbat.