Show Notes
In 2020 rapper YelloPain wrote ‘My Vote Don't Count’ convinced voting changed nothing — until a chat with his own cousin. Later he recorded ‘My Vote Will Count’ with Sevyn Streeter. We use both tracks to unpack how NZ's MMP system works. We see why we actually vote for a team and not a charismatic leader or popular celebrity turned politician.
We see that the team is elected anyway when you do not show up to vote. We celebrate and look forward to the Roll With Us campaign, urging rangatahi to enrol by 25 October and vote by 7 November.
Not voting doesn't remove you from the decision — it just removes your say.
More from Echoes of Dissent
Most weeks we are grumpy about something. This week, we celebrate. In 1987 Shona Laing wrote a jaunty pop song, “Neutral and Nuclear Free”, and was told she couldn’t sing it on Telethon because it was too political. We trace how a small country said no to nuclear warships, David Lange leads at the Oxford Union, and the Rainbow Warrior is bombed in Auckland Harbour. With songs from Shona Laing, Herbs and Nena’s “99 Red Balloons”, we ask what the Nuclear Free stand meant in 1986, we see how relevant it is 40 years on. In 2026, we still celelebrate because it seems to be the one thing all political parties agree on. Traversing the centuries and musical genres to dive into one song that cries out ‘This is wrong!’
YelloPain’s “My Vote Don’t Count” and his change of mind “My Vote Will Count” (featuring Sevyn Streeter), frame this episode of Echoes of Dissent: why people stay home on election day, and why the decision gets made either way. We weigh campaign promises, from Chicago’s satirical “Vote for Me” to the US midterms, ask whether we vote for a leader or a team, and we promote the “Roll With Us” campaign urging rangatahi to enrol at vote.nz before 25 October, so they can vote in the 7 November election.
India's Chief Justice called unemployed youth "cockroaches". Out of context perhaps, but it sparked an undercurrent into an uprising. One man asked, “What if all the cockroaches came together?” Five days later, 10 million followers. Weeks later, a government minister resigned. The Cockroach Junta Party is the fastest-growing protest movement in the world — and it started as a joke. But can a meme movement survive? We dig into what makes protests last, why most youth movements burn bright then vanish. Featuring music from John Lennon and Chumbawamba. Stay stubborn.
New Zealand is about to spend up to $9 BILLION on two warships that can't patrol our own coastline, can't stop illegal fishing in our own waters, and — by the government's own experts' logic — couldn't actually defend us anyway. So why are we buying them? This week, Echoes of Dissent asks the question Wellington doesn't want to answer: Why Grey Hulls? Why not MRIs instead? Dame Lynda Topp opens with the funniest takedown of the defence budget you'll hear all year. Then Herbs, Shona Laing, Bob Dylan and Edwin Starr join the soundtrack. We take a hard look at choices between frigates and hospitals, and where every party stands before November 7. Listen before you vote.
When Macklemore said "Free Palestine" from a stadium stage, he lost eight shows on Ed Sheeran's tour. We trace why and see the backlash that amplified Macklemore’s message. We play ‘Hind's Hall 2’ and remember Hind Rajab, the six-year-old it's named for.