One of the ABC’s biggest stars — who departs from breakfast TV on Friday — has been called out for “moonlighting” for a major insurance company while working at the national broadcaster.

Media Watch on Monday night revealed the popular News Breakfast host and two-time Logie winner appeared to have breached the ABC’s guidelines on external work.

The ABC TV program said it was “stunned” to learn that Armstrong “was selling an insurance company” by lending his voice to television and radio advertisements for NRMA’s rebranding.

The rebranding campaign coincided with Nine’s Olympic coverage, for which NRMA Insurance was a major advertising partner.

“We should point out Tony Armstrong is not identified and does not appear on camera — rather, his voice does all the talking,” host Janine Perrett said.

“There are strict rules around ABC staff doing external work and the rules get tighter the more famous you are, with the ABC stipulating that any external work by a high-profile presenter is very high risk.”

“Now, Tony’s arguably one of the ABC’s biggest stars. He’s not only on the breakfast TV couch – in recent months, he’s appeared at night on a new sports show, he’s one of many appearing in ABC News promos, and the face of his own five-part series.

“If this is not a breach of the guidelines on external work, which says you must seek approval from above, we don’t know what is.”

Plenty of ABC stars are engaged in outside work, often as emcees at corporate events. Recent examples include Annabel Crabb at a Women in Mining conference and Jeremy Fernandez at the ASIAL Security Conference – the ABC said those were approved gigs.

“But putting aside whether doing such corporate work is advisable – and for ABC journalists, we think it is problematic – voicing a commercial is a whole different game,” said Perrett.

“We asked the ABC if it knew about Tony’s side gig and if he got the green light to do it.

“Astonishingly, he did not. A misunderstanding?

“How any ABC reporter can voice a commercial for one of the biggest brands in Australia and not think that is a conflict is beyond us.”

Perrett said the ABC appeared keen to suggest Armstrong had done nothing wrong.

“Tony Armstrong did not respond to our request for a comment but with his ABC contract up this Friday, maybe it’s the start of his commercial TV or advertising career,” she said.

“But it’s a shame this moonlighting at the expense of the ABC’s integrity is what we’re talking about in his final week on the News Breakfast couch.”

Armstrong announced his departure on News Breakfast last week.

“I’ve been pretty nervous about doing this,” he said.

He will reportedly remain with the national broadcaster, though his next roles have not been revealed.

A former AFL player, Armstrong began on News Breakfast as a fill-in sports presenter in 2020. The role became full time the following year.

During his “meteoric rise” he won the Graham Kennedy Award for most popular new talent at the 2022 Logie Awards. In 2023, he won the Bert Newton Award for most popular presenter and he was shortlisted for the Gold Logie this year.

A proud Gamilaroi man, Armstrong has expanded his TV career to host other ABC series in recent years, including A Dog’s World and Tony Armstrong’s Extraordinary Things.