Borderline defective was a term used in the twentieth century to describe people who had intellectual disabilities. The Minister for Public Health in Western Australia defined five classes of 'defectives' in 1929. The fifth class was border-line cases, who were 'persons in whose case there exists mental defectiveness, not amounting to feeble-mindedness, accompanied by instability which is so pronounced that they are rendered socially inefficient and in urgent need of supervision, treatment and training which cannot be given in the ordinary schools' (Hansard, 17 September 1929, p.742).
![Annual Report for the Year June, 1927-28 [State Psychological Clinic]](../objects/thumbs/tn_WD0000324 1928 State Psychological Clinic Annual Report.png)
Sources used to compile this entry: 'Bill - Mental Deficiency. Second Reading [Hansard p739-747]', in Hansard Archive 1870 to 1995, Parliament of Western Australia, 17 September 1929, https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/hansard1870to1995.nsf/83cc4ce93b5d4e0b48257b33001cfef6/341F55B19BB020C248257A5300146E79/$File/19290917_Assembly.pdf. p.742..
Prepared by: Debra Rosser
Created: 25 April 2013, Last modified: 2 March 2015
Last updated: 17 October 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/wa/biogs/WE01035b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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