Haynes studied clarinet and bass clarinet at Griffith University, Brisbane with Floyd Williams, Brian Catchlove and Diana Tolmie, and at the Hochschule der Künste Bern with Ernesto Molinari and Donna Wagner-Molinari. Haynes specialises in the performance practice of contemporary music and improvisation. Since 2005 Haynes is a member of the AustralianELISION Ensemble, an international ensemble for contemporary music and since 2006 plays with the New Zealand based contemporary music ensemble, STROMA. In Europe, Haynes is a member of ensemble PRAESENZ and has been a guest musician with Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt am Main), Klangforum Wien (Vienna), musikFabrik (Cologne) and Cikada (Oslo). He has also performed with New Noise (UK), the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble (Hong Kong) and 175 East (Auckland)