ALPA outlines remote communities’ dependence on air services, the impact of unaffordable regional fares on Closing the Gap, ALPA’s own flight and food freight subsidies, and argues for equity-based airfare caps or subsidies linked to enforceable price outcomes, while detailing how high costs constrain medical treatment, funerals and cultural obligations. Senators probe the absence of NT subsidies, the limits of container deposit schemes, airline reliability, and how federal conditionality could drive more culturally appropriate and life‑saving aviation access for First Nations communities.