As the OECD has noted, “Australian pension funds have been pioneers in this [alternative assets] field since the 1990s and their financial industry invented the label infrastructure as an asset class.” However, it wasn’t just a case of the happy coincidence of 1990s infrastructure privatisations; myriad influences have brought about the embrace of alternatives. Time to review traditional models There was a realisation that the traditional asset allocation model—with 60 per cent of the portfolio dominated by listed equities and 40 per cent deployed to defensive assets significantly weighted to government bonds—which had served members well over many years, needed...