Apparently Venom Supplies has recently done some research / trails on cage sizes and breeding sucess on a few species including coastal taipans. I hear second hand that the results are that taipans and other species are PROVEN to do better, and reproduce better in smaller enclosures.
I think people in general, including some of the people who have posted on this thread, need to relise that reptiles, snakes in particular, are not people, they are not dogs, cats, or anything else. They are snakes. They have extremely small brains, and live following very simple instincts and very simple thought processes.
A snake is not "happy" or "sad" or "bored" a snake doesnt sit there and say "wow, what a crappy small enclosure" A basic rule coming from research is if a snake is eating, *****ting, shedding, and breeding, then it is physically healthy, and 'emotionally" healthy. A stressed snake which is not satisfied with its environment wont eat, it wont be healthy, and most of all, it wont breed.
People really need to stop thinking snakes and reptiles have emotions and have thought processes comparable to humans. How do I know??? because research on animals ans brain size/composition tells us. Parts of our brain that process emotion, snakes dont have, and so on and so on.
Alot, and i mean hundreds if not thousands more experts that have studied and bred snakes will agree on smaller enclosures than DECC can possibly come up with that will say the contrary