In 1987 Countdown was broadcasting its final episode, the stock markets took a huge hit on Black Monday, and a young political up-and-comer, Clover Moore, lost her chance to stand as Sydney's Lord Mayor after intervention from the NSW Government.

An early Clover Moore pamphlet for a council election. ( ABC News )

NSW Cabinet meeting papers from 1987 have been published for the first time and show what led to the sacking of the Sydney City Council 30 years ago.

Labor's Barrie Unsworth was the Premier at the time and the Cabinet papers said the council was removed over allegations of impropriety by Lord Mayor Doug Sutherland.

"The matter came to a head with the dispute over a recent trip to Washington by the Lord Mayor," it said.

"There were a number of serious allegations concerning impropriety. It was no longer possible … to withhold intervention in council affairs."

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore was an alderman at the time and was the favourite to become the city's first woman in the role.

However, scheduled council elections were not held as a result of the sacking and Cr Moore ran for a state seat instead.

"I thought it was the most outrageous interference of the democratic process and that's what I still think," she said.

"Having looked at those papers I can see there was no basis for the sacking and it was about political manipulation by the state of local government for political purposes.

"There was an independent report that showed there was no impropriety."

NSW Finance Minister Victor Dominello said the sacking drew parallels to issues surrounding the council today.

"How often do they say history repeats itself, well it does just in different formats," he said.

"A day doesn't go past where there's another cry for the City of Sydney Council to be dismissed, so I'm sure Clover Moore will be look back 30 years ago and say 'wow some things just never change'."

A survivor of many rule changes

Over the 30 years, Cr Moore's career has survived many rule changes by both major parties.

Most recently, the Liberal Baird Government changed voting rules before last year's election so businesses would get not one but two votes.

"It's all about the state manipulating the local government for its own purposes," she said.

In 2004, Cr Moore was elected as Lord Mayor but the NSW Carr Government's expansion to the boundaries of Sydney City in a bid to install a Labor candidate threatened her team's majority.

Eight years later, Liberal Premier Barry O'Farrell led the so-called "get Clover" laws which forced Cr Moore to resign as a NSW MP in order to keep her job as mayor.

"History is repeating itself over and over and the major parties just don't learn," Cr Moore said.

"[The release of the papers] is a lesson for the major parties that political manipulation of local government doesn't work."