please i need your opinion!

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Last night my partner and I had a huge arguement in regards to the way we would discipline our children..(keep in mind that we have an 11 month old and another due in May - so discipline may be way off yet). But we disagreed on one thing and that was whether or not we would allow other people in our family to physically discipline our kids (ie smack etc) if they ever thought it was necessary... My views are that they may send them to a corner, or take whatever they are playing with away from them but under NO circumstance are they to EVER touch my child. That should be left to the discretion of the parent... His views are that because his Aunties and Uncle's etc were allowed to smack him, his brothers and sisters that it is alright for family to smack our children, he says it taught them respect... I on the other hand went through the same thing as a child and it sometimes escalated to what I now would call abuse, and there is no way I would want my children to cry due to physical pain inflicted by family... My partner is Samoan and I am Aussie (european heritage) and he always says my way of thinking is the white way of thinking, do you agree?, could it be that the differences in our culture warrent a different way of thinking? I even went so far as saying that if I ever found out that family hit our child I would have them charged with child abuse, only because I know that my family that I keep in touch with would never touch my babies, and because I have witnessed the "bashings" his neices and nephews have received - is this going too far? to have to go to the extreme of involving the police just to have my opinion heard? and to ensure that my children will never be disciplined by another, I just don't want my kids to grow up thinking that anybody can touch them, I am fearful this may lead to them being silent if anything major happens, especially of a s*xual nature... Please give me you toughts...