Dirty cleaning

Why do I think that in this case, "powerless to" actually means "uninterested in"?

A nude car wash offering an X-rated sideshow and topless cleaning in Australia's tropical Queensland state has been given the all-clear after police and officials said they were powerless to scrub it.

The Bubbles 'n' Babes car wash in Brisbane prompted a flood of complaints with a topless car wash for A$55 ($45) and a nude car wash with X-rated lap-dance service for A$100. "If it was approved for a car wash then I can't imagine how we can stop them," Lord Mayor Campbell Newman told a council meeting with worried local lawmakers.

What's to worry about? Sounds like a perfectly legitimate enterprise where nothing shady or nasty could possibly happen.

Yeah.