The two teams went toe-to-toe in a best-of-three series with Australia emerging victorious after back-to-back wins at the Sir Owen Glenn National Aquatic Centre in the New Zealand city.

It was a superb response from Australia who missed out on one of the two quotas at the recent World Aquatics Championships after narrowly losing to Spain in the semi-finals.

Australia made a stunning start in Auckland, racing into a 5-0 lead in the first quarter before increasing their advantage to 8-0 at the half-time interval.

There was no stopping the Australian team as they powered to a 17-3 victory over New Zealand.

Australia also hit the ground running in the second match, moving 4-1 in front before replicating that scoreline in the second period to take a 8-2 lead at half-time.

New Zealand tried to reduce their arrears, but Australia proved too strong, winning 15-5 in what was captain Zoe Arancini’s 300th game for the national team.

"It was a tougher game today, but the girls were able to chip away and come away with the win," said Arancini.

"The team is ecstatic to have qualified for the Paris Olympics, it’s a nice way to end the international season.

"To have qualified a year out from the Games takes that pressure away and means we can focus on working on what we need to, to bring our best to the Paris Olympics."

Australian head coach Paul Oberman added: "It’s fantastic that we’ve qualified - excellent result for us.

"It means we can now focus on just us for the next 12 months in the lead up to the Olympics.

"Focus on some areas that we probably need to work on, whether it be attack, defence, extra-man attack, extra-man defence - all the really important areas of the game."