Labor vs the Greens..and the future of progressive politics

There has been alot said in recent times about Labor's attack on the Greens "extremism", and alternatively the conservatives attack on the minority Labor Government being in bed with the Green monster.
While Opposition Leader Abbott's spinning of PM Gillard's attack on the Greens as a faux fight for the cameras is only distracting attention away from the Labor Party's very real concern over their long term ability to shake off the Greens menace on the progressive side of politics.
Gillard's comments that the Greens are "well intentioned", while in the same breath accusing them of not sharing "Australian values" is a transparent attempt to woo back those transient progressive voters who have strayed from the flock back to mother with horror stories of what evil lies beyond the hill. No wonder Bob Brown returned volley on that one.
Labor's real problem is that it is in danger of  perhaps never being able to govern in its own right again? The Greens are the only party standing up for true progressive causes; Palestine, anti war, equal rights, anti discrimination, climate change etc.
With a party membership (Labor) of about 45,000, and with the vast majority of that being inactive (ie stacked) members, you now have no intellectual base coming through with ideas and vision. You're essentially a dying party run by a nomenklatura at party headquarters.
While the inner city seats still rely on Liberal preferences for the Greens to win, its only a matter of time before their vote is strong enough to roll labor. There's now too many educated "elites" who won't fall for Labor's empty branding and sloganeering in those seats. So once you've lost that intellectual base of your Party, who's left? The lower socio-economic class migrant seats with their rusted on voters?
Former Liberal Party Senator Reg Withers once scoffed at the idea when asked that the Liberals may be finished as a major Party, primarily because any Party that regularly polls 40% of the primary vote is only a step away from Government. And this is Labor's problem, their days of breaking 40% may be well and truly over?
So where is Labor to go, "moving forward" (to use their own cringe worthy slogan)? Do they follow the US Democratic Party model of morphing into what were once moderate Republicans, leaving a massive void on the Left which the Greens will gladly accept? You can (maybe) get away with that in the land of "enterprise", but a recipe for disaster in this country.
Former PM Keating pilloried the current Party apparatchiks for not believing in anything, and the next generation of power hungry young men are (believe me) no better!
Perhaps the Labor Party needs to reconnect with its base, and that doesn't mean listening to ambitious union leaders sniffing out a future pre-selection either. But the men and women of the branches, good people with ideas on climate change, human/equal rights, a balanced foreign policy, economics, national identity and a wealth of other important issues which can help define the Labor Party.
But the real danger is that it may already be too late?