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It is "complete madness" for the Northern Territory government to sell its insurance company without legislation for the federal asset recycling scheme that it's relying on, a senator says.

Labor Senator Sam Dastyari says the NT is getting ahead of itself if it's basing its economic modelling on federal funds.

"There are no federal funds for this yet; the legislation has not passed, it does not look like it's going to pass," he told AAP on Friday.

"If they don't know how much federal funding they're even going to be eligible for, it's complete madness going down this path."

Senator Dastyari is Chair of the Senate Inquiry into the Privatisation of State and Territory Assets and New Infrastructure, and is seeking to hold hearings as soon as possible in the NT on the sale of the Territory Insurance Office.

The government is expected to make an announcement about the sale as early as this weekend, and if it goes ahead will push through legislation to allow the sale during next week's parliamentary sittings.

It says it will set up an infrastructure development fund to hold about half the revenue from the sale of TIO, which would be eligible for a 15 per cent bonus from the federal government's asset recycling scheme.

A Senate committee meeting next week will determine whether the inquiry will travel to the Northern Territory to hold hearings on the sale.

One of its terms of reference is to determine what safeguards would be necessary to ensure any privatisations were in the interests of the state or territory, the Commonwealth and the public.

"There is nothing at the moment to convince us that the sale of this is going to be in the interests of the NT, or more importantly for us, that federal government funds should be made available for doing this," Senator Dastyari said.

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Country Liberals MP not for TIO sale

Not Just 2014: How To Beat Liberals Every Time
Tune in to "The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show," M-F, 6-9 a.m. PT / 9-12 Noon ET HERE: http://www.bondinfostore.org/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1827.

By: Jesse Lee Peterson

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Not Just 2014: How To Beat Liberals Every Time - Video

Building the Keystone XL pipeline, to speed the flow of crude from Canadas oil sands to refineries in Texas, would be game over for the climate, says NASA-scientist-turned-climate-activist James E. Hansen. Heeding Hansens words, environmentalists have sworn to stop the project, which requires U.S. government approval.

Yet large, bipartisan majorities of the House and Senate support Keystone XL, as does 60percent of the American public, according to the latest USA Today poll.

Today, it is still on hold, because Tuesday night 41 Senate Democrats voted against ending debate on a bill to green-light Keystone XL, thus thwarting what might have been a disastrous exercise of democracy.

In short, the filibuster may have just saved the planet, at least for now.

Or so it must be believed by Keystone XLs opponents even though they include some of the same people who decried the filibuster, not unreasonably, as an obstructionist, anti-majoritarian evil when Republicans employed it against President Obamas health-care reform, cap-and-trade and other progressive legislation.

Majority rule is not the only progressive principle some progressives seem ready to sacrifice on the anti-Keystone altar.

Remember the corrupting influence of money on politics? Billionaire Tom Steyer has spent millions on TV ads backing environmentalist Democrats and trashing the pipeline itself, thus purchasing outsize influence in the White House and the Democratic Party.

On issues as critical as climate change, we will take action and work within the system that weve got until we can change it, Steyer pragmatically told Forbes magazine.

Most of the time, liberals tout the job-creating potential of critical infrastructure projects, based on the indirect multiplier effect that even short-term construction can have on economic growth.

For Keystone XL, though, different rules apply. We are instructed, by Daniel Weiss of the Center for American Progress, among others, that the $8 billion project will create only 3,900 direct one-year construction jobs and a mere 50 permanent ones. Forget the 42,000 jobs that a State Department analysis said would be supported by the project.

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Lane: Liberals are violating their principles on Keystone XL

Ontario Liberals $500-million to make peace with school teachers last year, according to a new report. (Chris So/Toronto Star via Getty Images) | Chris So via Getty Images

The provincial government spent nearly $500-million to buy labour peace with school teachers in 2013.

That figure comes in a new report from the auditor general, released on Wednesday.

The provincial Liberals took on teachers back in 2012, imposing contracts that, among other cutbacks, ended payouts for unused sick days. The government said those measures would save nearly $2.5-billion.

Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk was asked to investigate if the Liberals were exaggerating that amount.

"We have concluded that the estimate was reasonable," she said in her report.

However, after the contracts were imposed amid labour unrest the Liberals made new deals with teachers. At that time, they promised the deals would not cost taxpayers anything.

But the auditor tallies those deals at $468-million.

So the governments original cost reduction estimate of $2.4-billion, made in August 2012, was revised to $2.1-billion after the contract negotiations. Lysyk repeated that was reasonable.

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Liberals Pay Nearly $500-Million For Labour Peace With Teachers: Auditor General

Former Liberals in the Senate are offering up ready-made legal arguments to anyone willing to take the federal government to court in order to force a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls.

They say they are taking the legal route because Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government refuses to heed the calls of aboriginal groups, civil-liberty organizations and opposition parties to hold an inquiry.

"I think that there is no other choice than to go to court," said Sen. Serge Joyal, who wrote the legal argument.

"This is a way to press upon the government in a more efficient manner, so the government will have to defend its stance in court and be shamed by public opinion. That, I think, might compel the government to act, finally."

Joyal, a lawyer by training, cites sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, other legal cases and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to buttress his argument for an inquiry.

He and his Senate colleague Lillian Dyck are in the early stages of finding someone who will take the case to Federal Court.

"The first party to launch an action is normally a person who is directly aggrieved or a person who has a direct interest," Joyal said.

Such a case could be before the courts for years.

But Joyal and Dyck say a court case would put pressure on the Conservative government to call an inquiry, something it has so far refused to do.

"It could be an aspect of shaming," Dyck said.

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Senate Liberals offer legal arguments for missing, murdered women inquiry