Kivalu pleaded not guilty to two counts of blackmail in Canberra on Friday, after admitting in the royal commission into unions on Thursday that he had accepted $60,000 from a contractor, in exchange for helping him with contacts in the industry. Mr Kivalu told the commission the money was paid voluntarily and was not given to him in his capacity as a union official.

Asked what he had done with it, he said, "I played the pokies with it; I gambled".

Mr Hanson wrote to Gambling and Racing commissioner Greg Jones on Friday asking him to investigate, given the connection between the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and the Tradies clubs. The union owns the clubs.

Mr Kivalu was also president of the Dickson Morning sub-branch of the Labor Party until May this year. The party owns the Labor clubs. Last week, ACT Labor suspended Mr Kivalu's membership. He finished as president of the sub-branch in May, when CFMEU organiser Zach Smith took over the position.

"Given this individual at the time was a member of the Labor Party and the CFMEU, there is a possibility that the CFMEU, through the Tradies clubs, or the Labor Party, through the Labor clubs, are now in receipt of this money," Mr Hanson said in his letter to Mr Jones. "I ask that the commission investigate this matter and advise what action, if any, you will be taking."

Mr Hanson said it was possible the proceeds of crime were now being held by licensed clubs connected to the Labor Party and the CFMEU and the issue must be investigated.

"My question is if the money obtained by Mr Kivalu has been put in the pokies at Tradies or Labor clubs and that money now rests with the ALP or the CFMEU, what is the consequence of that and what action needs to be taken?

"This is why [former Labor chief minister] Jon Stanhope is right when he says it is morally and politically untenable for the Labor Party to continue to own the Labor clubs."

Mr Jones said he had no comment to make on the request.

Labor Party ACT secretary Matt Byrne downplayed the influence of the CFMEU and Mr Kivalu in the local branch of the party and rejected suggestions last week that Labor should cut ties with the CFMEU.

Sub-branch presidents wielded little power in the party, Mr Byrne said. Their job was to welcome new members, organise activities and hand out how-to-vote cards at election time.

"It's a pretty minor role," Mr Byrne said. "It's got a really nice title, but it's not the be-all and end-all."

The CFMEU paid $7000 in affiliation fees and controlled 14 of the 327 votes at the party's ACT conference, about the same as the Transport Workers Union, United Voice and the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees' Association, and well below the biggest union in the Canberra branch, the Community and Public Sector Union, which had more than 60 votes, he said.

In annual returns, the CFMEU declares regular "gifts in kind" to the Labor Party through waiving room hire fees for sub-branch meetings in Dickson. In 2013-14, it declared $11,400 as gifts in kind. It also declared a $20,000 cash donation in the year, and $7330 in other payments to the party.

Mr Hanson called on Chief Minister Andrew Barr to answer for the money the party accepted from the union.

"In my view many people in the Canberra community would be very concerned about the significant influence that the CFMEU has within ACT Labor," he said.

But Mr Byrne said the CFMEU had done nothing wrong in terms of its relationship with Labor or its role as a legitimate trade union, ensuring the safety of workers in a dangerous industry.

He dismissed the royal commission as "a taxpayer-funded witch hunt", and said while "one or two serious things have come out of it", the party had moved quickly to suspend Mr Kivalu's membership.

"Discussions like this are exactly what Tony Abbott wanted, to distract from the cuts that they are making to health and education," he said.