Better known for his opposition to the 1981 Springbok rugby tour, Mr Minto has swapped his protest placards for politics and is seeking election to Parliament next month as co-vice-president of the Mana Party.
The veteran activist, who started the Halt All Racist Tours (Hart) movement more than 30 years ago, says he never thought he would be a politician and admits to having no "personal ambition" to become an MP.
"I've always said an activist is more effective outside of Parliament."
That is not to say Mr Minto has traded in his stance of standing up to "the man".
Indeed, he freely admits there is a deliberately strong streak of the insurgent running through Mana's policies.
"We have revolutionary policies and it's these which I support," he said.
Much of Mana's economic policy, for which Mr Minto is the party spokesman, can be distilled to a grassroots approach that focuses on reversing the unequal distribution of wealth by providing for the "99%".
The wealthy had continued to thrive on the backs of "working New Zealanders", he said.
Mana proposes to replace GST, which he labelled "a tax on the poor", with a financial users tax.
This would place a levy on significant financial transactions, monetary gifts and inheritances, and prevent international bankers and financiers from "speculating on the New Zealand dollar".
He visited the Occupy Octagon demonstrators yesterday afternoon and returned later for a Dunedin "launch" of the Mana Party's election campaign.
The main political parties had become alike and history showed their policies had both provided for the 1% during their times in power, he said.
Mr Minto urged the Octagon occupiers to continue to "stand up, keep the struggle going, keep the occupation going" and be more inclusive.
"This movement will succeed if we reach out and bring more people into our communities."
He also visited Forbury School and Hillside - two "communities" of which he had vivid memories.
His parents and grandparents both came from South Dunedin, he said.
He reminisced about his South Dunedin youth and how it felt to return.
"I grew up in Atkinson St in South Dunedin ... went to St Edmund's across the road. We used to call out rude names to the Forbury kids. It was nice to go back there ... I haven't been around that area for 15 to 20 years."
Mana had "real working-class values" and these had a resonance in areas such as South Dunedin.
Mr Minto joined the Hone Harawira-led Mana Party in May and is standing in the Manakau East seat, a traditional Labour seat that has similarities to the South Dunedin stronghold.
"In electorates like that, Labour has dominated for so long, for generations, that it's very hard to shift people's voting patterns.
"They've become automated about how they vote. And, with those automated voting patterns, Labour has taken all those votes for granted.
"I certainly hope I can shake the hell out of [Manakau East] and put an alternative option forward. But I certainly think it will take a number of elections to break that down," Mr Minto said.
