The kangaroo cull will no longer need an annual licence and will be cemented as a regular annual event at Canberra's nature reserves under a new kangaroo management plan.
The plan was released on Wednesday for comment.
Currently the Parks and Conservation service must apply to the Conservator of Flora and Fauna for a licence for the annual cull - and the licence can be appealed, an avenue for legal challenge that has tied up authorities in court cases most years since the cull began in 2009.
Two years ago, authorities issued a two-year licence, with the result that the 2016 cull went ahead without a court challenge.
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Now they propose getting rid of the need for a licence altogether. This week, the minister declared kangaroos a "controlled species", which allows the cull to go ahead without a licence.
The government says Parks and Conservation will still seek approval each year from the conservator, setting out how many kangaroos are to be shot and in which reserves.
The new management plan envisages shooting kangaroos each year to maintain them at a density of about one kangaroo per hectare on grassland - and less in woodland and forest. In open woodland, the density is 0.9 kangaroos a hectare, in woodland 0.5 kangaroos a hectare and in open forest and other forest the density will be maintained at just 0.1 kangaroos a hectare.
Each year, the aim is to bring kangaroo numbers back to a density below the target at cull time, so that the average density in the year to follow before the next cull remains at the target figure.
The government has been shooting kangaroos in an annual cull since 2009, despite vehement opposition from animal activists, who attempt to disrupt the shoot each year and have mounted several court challenges.
Over eight years, government shooters have culled 12,271 kangaroos on nature reserves, and in the past three years they have killed another 2061 pouch young.
Last year's was the biggest cull since 2011, with 1989 animals shot and another 800 pouch young killed.
Shooters are required to avoid shooting kangaroos if they have pouch young or young at foot. But if they do, they must also shoot the young-at-foot animals, and kill pouch young with a single blow to the head delivered with sufficient force to crush the skull and destroy the brain.
Each year since 1997, the government has also issued licences to allow thousands of kangaroos on rural land in the ACT to be culled. In 2015, 80 rural properties were licensed to cull 20,722 kangaroos. They reported shooting 11,130. It was the biggest number to date.
Government counts in 2015 suggest kangaroo densities are well above the target in a number of nature reserves, including Jerrabomberra East at 6.6 kangaroos per hectare, Farrer Ridge 3.4, Wanniassa Hills 3.2, Campbell Park 2.9, Googong Foreshores 2.5, North Weston 2.3, Gungaderra 2.2, Mount Ainslie and Majura 2.1, Goorooyarroo 2.1, Callum Brae 2, Mount Painter 1.8, the Pinnacle 1.7, Crace 1.5, Weston Park 1.4.
The cull ran into trouble last year when it was discovered the shooters had been using silencers illegally in the cull since 2009, having mistakenly been issued permits allowing silencers by the registrar of firearms each year, who is also the deputy chief police officer. Silencers are illegal in Canberra.
So far culling has been carried out at 14 of the 39 nature reserves in Canberra, with the government envisaging expanding the program to new reserves.
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