Comment 28 for bug 932860

First, there are the missing debhelper and cdbs build dependency bumps per http://wiki.debian.org/Multiarch/Implementation#cdbs_with_autotools_and_debhelper
Next, the appmenu hack is problematic. Right now, the .in file is converted into 2 files, 80appmenu and 80appmenu-gtk3 and each one installed. If you're going to make it use just one, then, which package does it go in. Also, the check doesn't help for the foreign arch check at all, it only checks the native arch. Unsubscribing sponsors for the moment, please resubscribe when these issues have been addressed.
Also, appmenu-gtk is maintained in an Ubuntu Desktop VCS branch. 'debcheckout appemnu-gtk' should get that for you if you'd like to commit the changes 1 by 1