LALApps fails with automake-1.16

On systems with automake-1.16 LALApps fails to build with:

cd ../.. && /bin/bash ./config.status src/lalapps/LALAppsVCSInfo.c
config.status: creating src/lalapps/LALAppsVCSInfo.c
  CC       LALAppsVCSInfo.lo
  CCLD     liblalapps.la
libtool:   error: cannot find the library '/builds/lscsoft/lalsuite/lalinference/src/liblalinference.la' or unhandled argument '/builds/lscsoft/lalsuite/lalinference/src/liblalinference.la'

e.g. cosmic, buster