“I Just Can’t Believe It, Darling”: Gina Minehard on Being Raided by VicPol Terrorism Officers

Victoria police counterterrorism officers raided four activists at around 7 am on 17 April 2026, as the women were allegedly connected to a 5-minute-long theatrical stunt outside the US consulate in Naarm-Melbourne on 26 March, which involved the pouring of oil and blood around the entrance to the American office, which unfortunately, saw one Victoria police officer slip over in the liquid.

The guerilla theatre was to protest the US-Israeli war of aggression on Iran. Attending the little get-together and pouring the oil and blood, or what they more precisely explained later as “the prime lubricants of the predator class”, around the lobby were Gina Minehard, Moregun Chase and Peta Philewrangler.

But that wasn’t all the trio was up too. They were under the assumption that US president Donald Trump might be in town and Gina wanted to pay her close associate a visit. Peta came along, “as she’s Donny’s party girl, and she organises all the parties”, while Morgun Chase was also there, as he wanted to make a request to the leader of the free world “for more guns”.

In their defence, the trio did attempt to alert the staff at the US consulate located on Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri land on Melbourne’s St Kilda Road that they were there bearing gifts for Donny and two of them are US citizens. However, after being denied entry, they apparently decided to pour the president’s gifts all over the consulate doors and on the floor in the lobby before its entrance.

The fun police

For their humorous little stunt, the four women activists that harmed nobody and neither damaged anything were all raided by around 50-odd VicPol officers in total at four residential locations three weeks later. And the officers executing the search warrants not only trashed their homes, but they were linked to the counterterrorism unit, while the activists’ theatrics were hardly acts of terror.

But while raiding the women over a humorous stunt does seem a little drastic for a state law enforcement agency to be doing, in actual fact, this appears to be exactly the kind of operations that Victoria police now specialises in, as three weeks earlier, it carried out similar raids on eight other women activists, who’d placed an apron on the statue of Zelda D’Apron at Victorian Trades Hall.

Sydney Criminal Lawyers spoke to Gina Minehard* about how it came to pass that such a distinguished member our society was raided by Victoria police, what she personally wanted to speak to Trump about on the day, and how when she was at the police station, the cops also got up her about her attempt to attend the recent Anthony Pratt party that featured Kylie Minogue.

Gina, most of the country knows you as an esteemed member of the Australian community, so a lot of people will be shocked to hear that on 17 April, some of the Victoria police counterterrorism squad forcefully knocked upon your door at 7 am and then entered your home and seized things.

Could you give us a rundown on what happened at the time?

I just can’t believe it, darling. Don’t they realise that I am the richest woman in the Southern Hemisphere?

They have absolutely no right to come barging into my house at seven in the morning, with a battering ram – you know, my door is worth a lot of money.

Luckily, they didn’t leave a scratch. But if they did…

They left a massive mess, however. The cleaning bill is going to be atrocious. They tipped everything out and upside down. They rounded up my children and put them in the loungeroom.

They ended up putting them in the kitchen, where, under surveillance, I had to serve them breakfast, which I usually get the maid to do, but it was too early in the morning and they weren’t there.

So, I had to make breakfast for the children, under surveillance, while they were filming me with a handycam. Outrageous.

They also went through the house with a sniffer dog that sniffs for tech, which is something I’ve never heard of. But it was a very cute puppy and the children wanted to play with it.

The dog went through and found every device in the house, including my children’s. They took my son’s phone, my daughter’s laptop and my other son’s iPad, as well as my pile of broken phones that I just like to throw around at whim. They’ll have a very big job going through it all.

Then they decided to arrest me. They handcuffed me – imagine handing cuffing the richest woman in Australia.

They took me to the Brunswick police station, and can I just say the fengshui there is awful. But not only that, their camera didn’t work for the mugshots. And for me, they at least could have gotten in a professional photographer.

So, they had to use someone’s iPhone because there’s wasn’t working. And as for the fingerprint machine, well, that definitely needs an upgrade as well.

The whole experience was absolutely dreadful.

And the authorities have placed some restrictions on you now, I believe? 

I am not allowed to use my private jet. Can you believe it? I am not allowed to go near any ports either, so I can’t even go anywhere in my yacht. And I’m being held within the state of Victoria. What about getting my nails done in Paris?

Actually, that reminds me, I was also off to the centre of the country to visit that fabulous establishment Pine Gap in July, but now this really puts a dampener on that if I can’t even fly my private jet to the golf course in the middle of the desert.

Anyway, that’s all very upsetting. But there’s even more, I am not allowed to associate with a whole list of people.

Now, I have a lot of business associates and a lot of people I like to fraternise with, and I am no longer allowed to make contact with them whatsoever. This is really going to affect my business incredibly.

The officers were also banging on about underground networks and the antiterrorist squad and this and that.

And sure, I destroy thousands of acres of the environment, and I steal land from Aboriginal people, and I’m being sued left, right and centre, but this doesn’t mean I am a terrorist – okay.

As you’ve just mentioned, your visit from the police wasn’t to do with any acts of terrorism, but rather, it was over a little soiree you were attempting to have with some of your associates at the US consulate in Naarm-Melbourne the month prior.

Could you explain what your little get together was all about, as it must have been quite a bash to be causing a disturbance four weeks on?

I was hanging out with my associates Moregun Chase and Peta Philewrangler, and we thought we might pay Trump a little visit.

We’d heard he might be in town, and we thought let’s just go directly to the consulate and have a little chat, partly because I’m a little bit concerned about this business in Iran.

I mean, yes, we want oil and we are prepared to do anything we can to get it, but the hold up in the Strait really could affect my business terribly.

We need iron to make guns and bombs and all these things, and there is a lot of money involved, but you’ve got to do it right.

I feel like Trump has really fudged this one badly. We thought perhaps he needed some advice from his esteemed business associates.

We thought we’d pay him a little visit, and you know, oil and blood do go well together, and we thought we would bring along some of the stuff Trump really loves and have a little play around and a little chat.

But very foolishly, the police on duty at the time decided to walk right through our little party and one of them had a little whoopsie daisy and fell over in the oil.

We thought they were party poopers and it was time to leave them. So, we bid them farewell and headed off, and the next thing you know, these clumsy cops had gone completely viral and obviously, somebody was upset. I don’t even know who, and they just came for us.

As you just mentioned, your attempt at a little soiree involved some blood and oil, which I believe were the gifts you had for Trump because these are some of the “prime lubricants” for the wealthiest people on the planet.

So, in bearing such gifts were these simply for your associate Trump, or were they to share with the consulate staff or did the lubricants have something to do with the Jeffrey Epstein in-crowd?

Well, yes, they are the prime lubricants of the predator class, and of course, we are all very interconnected, Trump, Epstein and myself. You know, all the billionaires – all the 1 percent.

This is how we make our money. This is what we do. That is why we had Peta Philewrangler and Moregun Chase along. Then there’s the weapons industry. All these things are completely interconnected, as are our finances.

So, oil is what we need and blood is how we get it. So, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate gift.

As an aside, I believe your last name Minehard reflects aspects of your family’s occupation in the same way that the surname Blacksmith once did.

Could you explain why you’re known as Minehard, and what are you up to in respect of your family business these days?

Yes, well, Hancock Prospecting, which was my father’s company, is how I inherited this large amount of wealth, which is worth at least $27 billion dollars at present.

We’ve been digging up iron ore in the Pilbara, and we’ve been expanding our mining interests across the continent.

I did just have a little issue as I really did want the name Hancock.com.au but someone wouldn’t give it to me, and that just cost me a few million in court.

But anyway, it is Minehard because I mine hard. And that is how I make my money.

Thanks to my little friends in politics, like Pauline and the Labor Party and some of the Liberals as well, it means that all of my mining leases get granted, native title gets ticked off and I have complete access to the riches of this country.

And would you say the access you have to the riches of this country and the business that you do with it has a trickledown effect for the greater Australian community? 

Oh? Trickle down?

Yes. 

We don’t trickle down. We keep it all at the top. We are not called the 1 percent for nothing. The 99 percent might have a couple of cents trickle down here and there, like to the limousine driver or the private jet pilot.

So, sure there are a few cents here and there. And as for royalties for Indigenous people, well, all we need is to see that happen for a few and we don’t mention it to the others. It is a bit of a divide and conquer technique I like to use in that regard.

I think it is more of a trickle-up effect, wouldn’t you say?

And lastly, you’re such a well-respected member of the community, so being raided over a satirical soiree seems a little overbearing. I’ve further heard that some other women who had a bit of fun placing an apron on a statute were also recently paid an early morning visits by VicPol.

So, Gina, why would say these officers of the law, who are obviously well below your paygrade, are acting in this manner when your attempted soiree and another little get-together were just harmless jest? And as an upstanding member of the community, where might you think this is all heading?

Well, it’s a bit Orwell-like, and 1984, and that whole kind of police state vibe, especially when it was all a bunch of women trying to have some fun.

With the misogyny involved in all this and the power involved, I really don’t know who we have offended?

Obviously, some of the guys just can’t take a joke, and they’re really, you know, targeting women of fine stature: those with Zelda and myself.

I really think as a woman and as a businesswoman and as a woman really making something of herself with a strong message, we just seem to be under attack.

How this comes under the counterterrorism unit of the police, I have no idea? I would never get my hands involved with acts of terrorism and neither would the Zelda ladies, because we are upstanding citizens, and they obviously don’t understand that.

The way it is heading is just no one can have any fun anymore. No one has a sense of humour. And we are being punished just for having a laugh. Seriously?

Another thing I don’t think they appreciated and something that I was charged for, along with being a public nuisance at the US consulate, is they got very upset about me attending the Pratt party the weekend before.

I am now facing charges just because I wanted to see Kylie Minogue at the Pratt party, and they didn’t put me on the guestlist.

So, supposedly, as I drove off from the party, and the wheels had a little bit of a spin, they are saying I damaged 80 metres of roadway.

But I really think that if they are going to reject me from the party, not let me see Kylie and behave in such a manner without even having me on the guestlist, well, of course I’m going to speed off in a huff.

So, if that is enough to have your house raided over then phoof.

Please donate to the crowdfunding campaign to assist Gina Minehard and her business associates in covering their court costs

*The Gina Minehart interview is satire. The characters Moregun Chase and Peta Philewrangler are fictitious. However, the guerilla theatre action and the early morning raids on the woman activists were real events.