From low profile MPs to headline grabbers — who are Lara Alexander and John Tucker?

Lara Alexander and John Tucker will be on the crossbenches when parliament sits later this month. (ABC News: Maren Preuss )

It was the detonation of a political bomb that few saw coming — two Tasmanian Liberal MPs quitting the government to sit as independents.

But when John Tucker and Lara Alexander made the announcement, it was one of the first times they had fronted the media during their relatively short time in politics.