First up, the biggest cause is timing. You don't get franking...

First up, the biggest cause is timing. You don't get franking credits until you pay your tax bill. So you can earn your profit, record your tax expense and liability (this isn't a choice, you must record the known expense and liability or your won't pass audit), and still have the cash sitting there until May 2024 when it's due (I don't know HLI's due date, but most Aus company taxes are May 15). If you declare a dividend in March, unless you pay your tax early, you do not have the franking credits to distribute...

They're stating AASB17, which is the Insurance Contracts accounting standard. It's not one I'm familiar with, but my assumption is that there is a difference between the accounting treatment and the tax treatment. It's actually quite common. Your profit for accounting purposes is X, but then you have additions and subtractions to get to your taxable income of Y. You pay tax based on that. It might be that the accounting income is recognised differently, or an expense is non-deductible, or any number of things.