Premier Chris Minns said the impact of this week’s extreme weather on flood-prone communities in western Sydney justified last year’s decision to stop the building of more than 10,000 homes in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley floodplain.

Speaking at the SES headquarters on Saturday, Minns said his government had made a “difficult decision” to stop a dramatic increase in home-building in Sydney’s north-west despite his determination to tackle the city’s housing crisis.

Minns said the previous state government had “opened discussions and land release in what we would consider flood-prone communities”.

“We decided in the end that that was too dangerous and it will add to the amount of people that had to evacuate from flood prone areas,” he said.

“We were criticised for it. I think events like today and yesterday prove that it was the right decision although it’s a tough call because obviously we need housing.”

Minns also raised the prospect that some communities may have to be abandoned because of climate change and extreme weather.

Minns said the impact of climate change had already prompted a “massive program” of buying homes and building new communities around Lismore.

“As a result of climate change, you’re going to see increasing weather events like we’ve seen over the last 48 hours,” he said. “Governments are going to have to work with communities to make changes, it’s not going to be easy but it’s obviously necessary.”