diff --git a/debian/bin/test-patches b/debian/bin/test-patches
index 480074921..53e08c87a 100755
--- a/debian/bin/test-patches
+++ b/debian/bin/test-patches
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ eval "set -- $(getopt -n "$0" -- "f:j:s:" "$@")"
 while true; do
     case "$1" in
 	-f) flavour="$2"; shift 2 ;;
-	-j) export DEBIAN_KERNEL_JOBS="$2"; shift 2 ;;
+	-j) export MAKEFLAGS="$MAKEFLAGS -j$2"; shift 2 ;;
 	-s) featureset="$2"; shift 2 ;;
 	--) shift 1; break ;;
     esac
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 801a289bb..147e5cfc0 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ linux-2.6 (3.2.17-2) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
   [ Jonathan Nieder ]
   * wacom: Add support for various tablet models (Closes: #671801)
 
+  [ Ben Hutchings ]
+  * test-patches: Fix -j option, broken since 3.1.0-1~experimental.1
+
  -- Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>  Wed, 16 May 2012 02:19:30 +0100
 
 linux-2.6 (3.2.17-1) unstable; urgency=low