On with the show. Labour, Liberal what's the difference?

Now that the leadership battle has been dealt with (or though I guess it's not going away anytime soon). I'd like to put some questions out there.
I keep hearing about the governments commitment to a budget surplus. But why is it so important? Surely the only thing that can come from this is a reduction in services and programs that would help generate real long term employment. Or at the very least stagnation of the current programs. What appears to be the problem is the lack of investment in education, health and infrastructure. Although I would concede that this has been the case whatever political party is governing at the time. But, in the rush to be seen as good fiscal managers the current government has trashed the very principles of its own party. I believe the current government could be  called Neo-liberalist (correct me if I'm wrong). What does that mean?
What appears to be happening is that the major parties are engaging in "me too" politics on all but the most contentious issues, thereby leaving little room for any serious debate on things that affect the majority of the population. It doesn't help when the current opposition is engaging in negative politics and refuse to put any of their policies out there for public scrutiny. Which leads me to my next question. Why does the opposition need to wait until an election is called before they will let the public know what their stance is on the major issues? Are the scared of what the voters will think, or are they worried that the government will steal some of their ideas?
Is it any wonder that the membership of political parties are dwindling. Does there need to be more independents in government........ where are the Democrats? We need a party to keep the bastards honest. Lately, we have needed someone to keep the bastards from choking each other, inside and outside the party!
Hmmmm, men and women behaving badly.