NEW Zealand’s Health Minister has been forced to deny he snorted pretend lines of cocaine at a primary school fundraiser.

Jonathan Coleman was at the event last week at a school in his Northcote electorate, which had a Las Vegas theme — complete with fake cocaine, the New Zealand Herald reported.

His children attend Northcote Primary School, on Auckland’s North Shore.

Images from the fundraiser show parents with the trays of lines of the fake drug. A representative for Mr Coleman denied he played with the drug or was even aware of it.

Asked whether he snorted or pretended to snort the fake cocaine, he said: “Of course I didn’t. I didn’t even see this stuff. I didn’t even know it was there until I heard it in the media yesterday. It’s a small detail,” reported Radio New Zealand.

However, the minister conceded that parents and teachers should be leading by example.

School Board chair Andrew Fox told Newshub it was a regrettable decision.

“One of the decorations was some icing sugar, poorly chosen and in hindsight we realise it was inappropriate,” he said.

“We certainly didn’t anticipate that it would cause offence, and if we were to do it again, it would be removed.

“It was a decoration, and as I think you have seen, a couple of parents who weren’t at the ball but did see photos on Facebook approached us and they were unhappy about that. Subsequently we have apologised to them.”

andrew.koubaridis@news.com.au