LNP is an 'unhappy marriage': Bligh

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says the state no longer has a viable opposition.
Two Liberal National Party MPs - Aidan McLindon and Rob Messenger - quit the party
this week to sit as independents.
The move came as the LNP received a pep talk from former prime minister John Howard,
who called on them to deliver a policy platform well before the next election and
remain united.
The exit of Mr McLindon and Mr Messenger, who supported John-Paul Langbroek for the
LNP leadership, also means Mr Langbroek could fall short of the numbers in a future
leadership vote.
Ms Bligh, who on Friday returned from an overseas trade mission, said the LNP -
formed out of the Liberal and National parties - had always been "a shotgun
marriage".
"What we've seen this week - the debacle - is just another chapter in a very unhappy
marriage," she said.
"What a healthy democracy needs is a strong, capable alternative government in the
form of an opposition - we don't have one in Queensland.
"We haven't had one for years and it doesn't look like we're going to have one for
some time."



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