The Australian Workers Union has backed calls for a strategy to manage the billions of dollars being sought to prop up fiscally troubled metal smelters as maverick independent MP Bob Katter pushes for government intervention at Glencore’s Mount Isa copper operations.

National secretary Paul Farrow said the AWU would welcome a smelting strategy under Labor’s Future Made in Australia policy, with equity or long-term loans on the table for business being forced to weather global markets being distorted by China and others.