Unable to build deb, error: please specify file_id or path

When trying to use bzr builddeb, I was unable to proceed with compiling if a symlink was present in the packaging directory.

Backtrace:

Building using working tree
Running in merge mode
bzr: ERROR: bzrlib.errors.BzrError: must supply file_id or path

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 853, in exception_to_return_code
    return the_callable(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 1055, in run_bzr
    ret = run(*run_argv)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 661, in run_argv_aliases
    return self.run_direct(**all_cmd_args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 665, in run_direct
    return self._operation.run_simple(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/bzrlib/cleanup.py", line 122, in run_simple
    self.cleanups, self.func, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/bzrlib/cleanup.py", line 156, in _do_with_cleanups
    result = func(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/bzrlib/plugins/builddeb/cmds.py", line 354, in run
    (changelog, larstiq) = find_changelog(tree, merge)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/bzrlib/plugins/builddeb/util.py", line 135, in find_changelog
    if (t.kind(t.path2id('debian')) == 'symlink' and
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/bzrlib/workingtree_4.py", line 545, in kind
    relpath = self.id2path(file_id)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/bzrlib/decorators.py", line 140, in read_locked
    result = unbound(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/bzrlib/workingtree_4.py", line 447, in id2path
    entry = self._get_entry(file_id=file_id)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/bzrlib/workingtree_4.py", line 354, in _get_entry
    raise errors.BzrError('must supply file_id or path')
BzrError: must supply file_id or path