Politician Chris Hayes

Hayes held the position of Returning Officer for the Labor Caucus, in which he oversaw elections, including the 2013 leadership spill/ballot in June. He released the official votes between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.

Hayes was educated at De La Salle College, Revesby and University of Sydney. He has a Diploma in Labour Relations and Law. He was an industrial officer with the Public Service Professional Officers Association and then with the Australian Workers' Union from 1978 to 1995, then assistant national secretary of the Police Federation of Australia and New Zealand from 1997 to 1999. Since 1999 he has run his own business advising companies and unions on mediation issues.

At the 2005 Werriwa by-election Hayes polled 55.54 percent of the primary vote, a 2.90-point increase from the October 2004 election. This was seen as a good result for Labor, although the Liberal Party did not contest the by-election. At the 2010 federal election, he moved to the seat of Fowler following a redistribution to allow Laurie Ferguson, whose seat of Reid had been substantially changed, to contest Werriwa.

Hayes, a practising Roman Catholic, was one of the few Labor MPs to publicly oppose the legislation of same-sex marriage. He voted to legalise same-sex marriage after the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey returned a majority for "Yes", even though 63.66% of his electorate voted "No".

In October 2020, in the Federation Chamber of the Australian Parliament, while reading out a letter from his cousin who had suffered child abuse, Hayes grabbed at his heart and collapsed. Tanya Plibersek, a Labor colleague, who was sitting beside him, helped him into a chair, and Dr Mike Freelander, another Labor colleague, provided CPR, assisted by Nationals MP Dr David Gillespie. Hayes was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, and debate in the Chamber was suspended for the remainder of the day. Later, in the House of Representatives, Labor leader Anthony Albanese and Prime Minister Scott Morrison expressed their wishes for Hayes' speedy recovery.

In March 2021, Hayes announced that he would be retiring at the 2022 election.