Corby applies for dole
CONVICTED drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has applied for the dole as she leads a life of leisure back home on the Gold Coast.
Well-placed sources say Corby applied for Newstart payments about a month ago. Once approved, she will receive fortnightly payments of about $530 a fortnight but will have to look for work.
Corby has slipped comfortably back into the laidback Gold Coast lifestyle since returning to Australia three months ago after almost 13 years behind bars and on parole in Bali.
Social media photos suggest she has become increasingly relaxed and carefree since her dramatic return to Australian soil in late May, when she was spirited out of Bali to Brisbane in an elaborate and expensive cloak-anddagger security operation to evade the media.
Instagram pictures show her soaking up the winter sun at the beach, visiting Rainbow Bay Surf Club, lunching with sister Mercedes at a trendy Coolangatta eatery, partying with friends and family on popular Burleigh Hill and even provocatively posing with a boogie board.
Revelling in her newfound fame as a social media star, Corby’s 200,000 Instagram followers have been treated to regular photo updates of her cruisy life back home on the Coast.
After hunkering down at a secret location for the first couple of weeks, Corby gradually emerged from hiding with more frequent public appearances.
In early June, she posted a picture of one of her first outings – to a sun-drenched headland on what appears to be the picturesque Tweed Coast.
“Out & About, Australia is so beautiful. Crisp, clean air,” she told her followers.
She was also pictured lounging on an outdoor seat and lolling on a grassy riverbank reading a newspaper.
Corby posed with crutches in some of her earlier Instagram photos after breaking her leg in a mystery mishap.
She was treated at the private John Flynn Hospital.