Of course a local politician should be allowed to care and engage with international politics

It's what the LNP does all the time. If it's a policy they agree with, they'll happily support motions like this. For example, BCC's overwhelmingly LNP-dominated Council supported a Greens-brought motion when the Afghan government fell, supporting the Afghan people and calling on the federal Government to support them and take in refugees. Or more recently, they started complaining about the state Government's 50 c public transport trial not coming with additional investment in vehicles around Brisbane. And it worked. The state Government did come and also promise additional services.

But any time they don't want to do something, they'll use the excuse that it's a state or federal concern, even when they know perfectly well that that's not necessarily completely true, or when they know that they could at least be putting political pressure.