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Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley: I accidentally murdered Mulrunji when I fell top top of him and cleaved his liver in two.

PM's New Australian Future Fund manager: You bet I'll give $51 billion dollars to private equity.

DAVID NEAL: Private equity is one of the investment opportunities obviously that large institutional funds would look to exploit. It's one way in which value can be unlocked from companies and therefore is a very attractive way of developing wealth within an investment portfolio.

So, to some extent, to the extent that it takes opportunities away from the listed markets, those opportunities for value creation are still there and present for long-term institutional investors. So, I don't think it limits the opportunity set for institutional investors, it just moves them from the listed market to the unlisted market.

EMMA ALBERICI: So you're saying institutional investors can still play a role in teaming with private equity or indeed funding them?

DAVID NEAL: Absolutely! Absolutely. I mean that is very definitely what many institutional investors do. By institutional investors I mean investors such as the Future Fund.

Neal adds:

The investment mandate is very broad. It doesn't impose any great restrictions on the Board. So the Board certainly has a fairly free hand in that regard.

In both cases, we have empowered government representatives throwing their weight around with reckless disregard for the consequences.